2026 Fantasy Football Player Profile: Chris Godwin Draft Profile and Player Breakdown

A lot of folks will try to tell you that the “golden age” of fantasy football was back in the early 2000s. And, sure, it was a much simpler time. Every starting running back was touching the ball 300+ times. The big “X” wide receiver was getting peppered with targets. Fantasy football was EASY. But we were also playing the game in its most archaic fashion. And true sickos want the game to be challenging. 

Imagine going back to the local pub, where people were making picks by hand and checking the newspaper for scores, to explain to them how “best ball” works? That you could draft as many teams as you wanted, as early as you wanted, and an algorithm over on a site like FFPC would set the lineups? Or that you could play in a dynasty league, buying and selling value on players based on your dynasty fantasy football rankings all year round?

That’s why, for us, there has never been a better time to play fantasy football. The platforms have never been easier to use. The formats have never been more friendly for playing all year round. And the access to data and information has never been more readily available. 

Yet, despite that, certain players still fall through the cracks of ADP. Folks don’t seem to recognize when the perfect storm of talent, scheme, and opportunity is brewing. And that’s why, each year, we do a handful of Fantasy Football Player Profiles, highlighting some specific players we are targeting, like Drake Maye last year. Well, it’s time to get into our first Player Profile of the 2026 NFL season. And we are starting with Chris Godwin.  

Chris Godwin Player Profile - Talent

Whether or not Chris Godwin is talented isn’t really up for debate. I mean, he’s finished as high as WR2 in fantasy football across the entire league. In fact, in 2024, before his injury, he was once again the WR2 in fantasy. His 19.7 PPR points per game that year were second only to Ja'Marr Chase and ahead of Puka Nacua, Justin Jefferson, and Amon-Ra St. Brown. He was coming off back to back to back 1,000 yard seasons and was easily set to clear that again. Not to mention, he was on pace for an absurd 120+ catches. The statistics are backed up by a phenomenal Reception Perception profile detailing just how successful he was in 2024, both vs. man and zone, with incredibly sure hands (88.9% contested catch rate with zero drops). 

So the question isn’t about talent - it’s about health. The ankle injury that Godwin suffered in 2024 required two separate surgeries in the offseason. He was activated from the PUP list in August but did not return until Week 4. In Week 5, he suffered a fibula injury that set him back until Week 12 in November. He returned to a partial snap share and did not get back to a full workload until Week 15.

The health of Godwin going into 2026 is at the crux of the decision to draft him. But, if you listen to General Manager Jason Litcht, Godwin was actually back to looking like himself again towards the very tail end of last year, where he had a couple of decent games, like the one against Miami. After playing the final seven games of 2025, we have no reason to believe that Chris Godwin won’t be 100% going into the offseason program. There are players going far early, like Malik Nabers, Cam Skattebo, and Qunshon Judkins, who are coming off major surgery THIS year. 

Chris Godwin Player Profile - Scheme

Everyone knows that Baker Mayfield had his big breakout in 2024 in large part because of offensive coordinator Liam Coen and his scheme. But what went under the radar for some was how friendly the scheme was for Chris Godwin. Godwin had his best overall season back in 2019 while running 63.4% of his routes from the slot per Pro Football Focus. He would essentially play slot for three WR sets and then move outside to flanker for two WR sets to maximize his usage. This is the same exact usage that Cooper Kupp and CeeDee Lamb had when they put together top three all-time fantasy seasons.

In 2023, Dave Canales had Chris Godwin playing primarily out wide with only a 38.1% slot rate. When Liam Coen took over, that rate was back to 61.9% with nearly 72.8% of his total snaps being off the line of scrimmage per Reception Perception, as Mike Evans primarily played the split end role with his foot tethered to the line. And, in that setup, Godwin was back to putting up nearly 20 PPR points per game. Josh Grizzard last year still used Godwin in the slot for more than half his snaps as well, but he has since been fired - now Zac Robinson takes over.

And it’s pretty clear what the thought process is here. Liam Coen came over from the Rams and the Sean McVay coaching tree. Coen’s scheme created the best environment the Buccaneers have seen in years. Zac Robinson worked under Sean McVay from 2019 to 2023, both overlapping with Liam Coen and Baker Mayfield. In fact, Zac Robinson was the pass game coordinator the year that Cooper Kupp set the single-season record for PPR points. That’s good news for Chris Godwin. 

Chris Godwin Player Profile - Opportunity

If Mike Evans were still in Tampa Bay, we’d have tough questions to answer. Mike Evans was the true X receiver of this offense, playing split end for over 70% of his snaps in most years and often as high as 80%. That would have left Emeka Egbuka and Chris Godwin scrambling for that coveted slot role in this scheme. Luckily for us, Mike Evans left in free agency to sign with the San Francisco 49ers.

Now, we don’t know for sure what Zac Robinson will decide to do with the personnel, as this is his first year in Tampa Bay. But there are two things we do know. One is that Chris Godwin played more snaps from the slot than Emeka Egubka in every single game they were active last year. Per Pro Football Focus, Godwin sat at a 55% slot rate in those games vs. Egbuka at 33.2%. The second thing we know is that Liam Coen made Chris Godwin a focal point of out of the slot in that great 2024 season. And Zac Robinson is from the same coaching tree and runs the same scheme.

This team will likely use a lot of three or even four-wide receiver sets with Cade Otton going back to being an inline tight end. I expect Emeka Egbuka to be in the Mike Evans split end role. Chris Godwin should play slot for three wide receiver sets and flanker for two wide receiver sets. Jalen McMillan and rookie Ted Hurst will then battle for the snaps out wide in three and four-wide sets when Godwin is in the slot. That leaves Egbuka and Godwin as the full-time wide receivers. We wrote an article last year on Fallacies in Fantasy Football, and right now, there is a bit of a “false choice dilemma” going on between Emeka Egbuka and Chris Godwin. Check the article for the full definition, but the bottom line is that just because you like Emeka Egbuka at his ADP, that doesn’t mean you should be out on Godwin at his. 

Chris Godwin Player Profile - Early ADP

The talent is there, the scheme is friendly, and the opportunity should be ideal. The question is about health, but if the Buccaneers GM is to be believed, he was already healthy when the season closed out last year. So there’s a real shot that Chris Godwin returns to form here and potentially puts up WR1 numbers. 

As it stands right now, betting on Godwin is a bit of a no-brainer. We don’t even know for sure who will lead the Buccaneers in targets, but that’s not even a decision that you need to make based on ADP. Emeka Egbuka comes off the board as WR19 in ADP in early best ball on sites like FFPC, while Chris Godwin is WR40 and beyond. That is already the world where we don’t care at all about floor with the guys we are drafting - just ceiling. 

We’ll have to see how well that ADP holds as we approach true redraft season. But I suggest that, at the very least, you load up on some shares of Godwin now before the cat is out of the bag on what kind of upside he has. The last time Chris Godwin was healthy, he was the WR2 in all of fantasy, and that was with Mike Evans there. I know they like giving the award to quarterbacks, but I truly believe Chris Godwin could be an NFL Comeback Player of the Year candidate when all is said and done.