Why Chris Godwin spurned Patriots’ $30 million offer, signed for less money with Buccaneers

The New England Patriots went after one of the NFL’s top receivers during this free agent cycle. Despite a lucrative offer, they came up empty in their quest to get Drake Maye another premiere target in the passing game. Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins are now with the franchise, but the Patriots nearly had Chris Godwin, too.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers re-signed Godwin earlier this offseason despite a $30 million-per-season offer from the Patriots, according to The Athletic’s Dan Pompei. Godwin is on a new three-year, $66 million contract, which shows his confidence level staying with Tampa and quarterback Baker Mayfield after winning the NFC South last season.

“One opinion mattered to Godwin — his wife Mariah’s,” Pompei reports in an extensive article. ” They went over the possibilities and concluded they would take less, much less, to stay in Tampa.”

The Patriots thought enough of Godwin to believe he could be WR1 in New England even after last season’s devastating injury. Godwin was leading the NFL in catches and ranked second in total yards prior to injuring his ankle in Week 7, causing him to miss the rest of the campaign. 

Godwin unfortunately missed the better part of two seasons over the last four years with serious injuries after initially tearing his ACL in 2021. After managing career-best numbers in 2022 after his return with 104 catches for 1,023 yards that season, Godwin was statistically-dominant again in 2023 prior to his early surge last fall as one of the league’s best pass-catchers.

“I’m hoping he’s on the field Week 1,” Tampa coach Todd Bowles said before the NFL Draft. “I’ll have more to know about that after [this] month goes on — see how he feels when he gets running and practicing and everything else.”

Now, Diggs becomes Maye’s top receiver. He also returns from a significant injury after tearing his ACL in Week 8 last season with the Houston Texans. Diggs was on pace to record his seventh consecutive 1,000-yard season prior to going down. Over four previous seasons with the Buffalo Bills before he was traded to Houston, Diggs tallied 37 total touchdowns and averaged over 100 catches per campaign.