The Bucs have two main injury concerns going into the 2025 season. One we’ve known about for quite a while. The other we didn’t know until a particular draft pick was made last weekend.
Wide receiver Chris Godwin has been recovering from his dislocated ankle since he suffered the injury in a Week 7 loss to Baltimore. Even Godwin himself has given some updates albeit not very direct.
That made the first-round draft selection of Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka all that more intriguing. It gave the Bucs an insurance policy for the event if any of their star receivers got injured during the season like they did last year, but it also raised question about whether Godwin would be ready for the start of the season.
Will Bucs Have Chris Godwin At The Start Of The Season?
Bucs general manager Jason Licht went on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday afternoon where he discussed the Bucs’ latest draft among many topics. The question about Chris Godwin came up and what the timetable was looking like for when we’d say him practicing and playing again.
Bucs WR Chris Godwin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
“It’s all about the weapons and it was all about best player available there,” Licht said. “Chris is on target where we thought he’d be. We signed him to three years, one year is a long term deal in the NFL, but three years, we’re excited to have him this long. This gives us some comfort that we can just make sure that he’s rehabbing at a steady rate, that we’re not rushing this. We’re expecting him Week 1, but now we’re not worried about trying to rush it too quickly because we got another receiver that can step in. But that doesn’t mean we’re not expecting him to be back Week 1 because we still are.”
Bucs fans can exhale a little bit when it comes to their coveted star receiver.
Jason Licht Has Starting Date Set For Bucs Rookie CB Benjamin Morrison
The other injury situation going on is with second-round pick, Notre Dame cornerback Benjamin Morrison. He only played in six games last season because of a hip injury that required surgery. As we learned from Morrison in his zoom press conference, this was a bi-lateral hip injury.
He had corrective surgery on one hip in high school and surgery on the other hip last season. Once he’s healed, he’ll be good to go and there shouldn’t be any concerns about this re-occurring since he was born with the condition rather than injuring his hip while playing the game.
It looks like we’ll see Morrison pretty soon when the summer rolls around.
Bucs CB Benjamin Morrison – Photo by: USA Today
“We have a process here just like every other team,” Jason Licht said. Our doctors checked him out all out at the NFL Scouting Combine. They wait for more imaging, more testing, they ask for more things sometimes in these cases. At the end of the day, we’re not going to take a player that our medical team felt uncomfortable with. He ended up working out the week before the draft. We had one of our top scouts there at it, we got the video of it right away.
“We felt he looked really, really good and he’s in a spot where I think he’s going to be full-go. He probably could practice right now, we’re going to see how it goes when he comes in here but we’re going to take it easy, we’re going to make sure we’re careful with him. He’s going to be ready by training camp, everybody feels like. He had the same injury on the other side, his other hip back in high school, had it repaired. From what we understand, once it’s repaired and you’ve proven you can play on it, you’re good to go. It’s almost as if it’s as healthy as it can be.”
Check out the entire episode of the Pat McAfee Show including the whole interview with Licht by clicking the link below.