As Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Chris Godwin laid on the ground at Raymond James Stadium after a devastating, season-ending injury with less than 1 minute left in a 41-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Monday Night Football cameras cut to Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles.
Bowles appeared to be laughing and smiling as he talked into his headset — a moment presented without context as to who Bowles was talking to or what he was talking about. Still, it became one of many talking points following the game and was part of the avalanche of criticism Bowles faced after both of the Buccaneers’ star wide receivers, Godwin and Mike Evans, went down with injuries against the Ravens.
Evans was limited during practice leading up to the game with a hamstring injury he re-aggravated in the first half. Evans appeared to have tweaked his hamstring on a 25-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter but remained in the game and left for good after dropping what would have been his second touchdown.
“There are moments you question whether (Bowles) actually holds this team back,” said Loose Cannons Podcast host Samer Ali on a video posted to his official X account following the game.
The criticism of Bowles regarding Godwin’s injury was centered around whether one of the NFL’s best wide receivers should have been in the game down 10 points with under 1 minute left.
“You could say that because he got hurt. We don’t second-guess,” Bowles said after the game. “We got our guys, we’re playing everybody we got. It’s unfortunate he got hurt and we feel bad about that but he’s a football player and he wanted to be in the game, just like (quarterback) Baker (Mayfield) and everybody else wanted to be in the game.”
Former Pro Bowler Comes to Bowles’ Defense
Not everyone piled on Bowles following the loss.
ESPN analyst and Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark came to Bowles’ defense.
“The fact that a reporter treated Todd Bowles as if he had set Chris Godwin up for injury was a ridiculous line of questioning,” Clark wrote on his X account. “This isn’t little league where you pull your guys so other people can play for their parents to take pics. Players and coaches practice all week for 60 minutes, and it’s their job to pour their whole beings onto that field until the clock hits 0. Todd Bowles wasn’t giving up on his team, & his team wasn’t giving up on him. It’s heartbreaking that (Godwin) suffered an injury so gruesome, but I can guarantee you he wanted to be out there with his brothers scrapping for every single yard!”
What Future Might Hold for Godwin and Evans
While NFL fans watching the Buccaneers game on MNF will have a hard time forgetting Godwin’s injury, it also may have been the last moment anyone will see him play for Tampa Bay as he’s an unrestricted free agent after this season.
The injury to Evans is much more vague as far as its long-term ramifications.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Evans will undergo an MRI on October 22 to see what the extent of the damage to the hamstring is. Evans has only missed 8 games over the first 10 seasons of his career and never more than 3 games in a single season — he missed 3 games in 2019 due to a hamstring injury.
