The Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered some major setbacks just a couple of weeks ago in their loss to the Baltimore Ravens that saw both star wide receivers, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, go down with injuries.
Evans is expected to return sometime after the bye week with his hamstring injury while Godwin will miss the remainder of the 2024 campaign after having surgery on his dislocated left ankle.
The Bucs needed the rest of their offensive players to step up, and although they suffered a loss against the Falcons, they seemed to not miss much of a beat on their way to scoring 26 points. Even so, it might be worthwhile for Tampa Bay to look at the trade block to further solidify their wide receiver room if they believe that they still can contend and make the playoffs.
I wrote a story last week regarding some of the options that would make sense for the Buccaneers to trade for, but that list just became shorter as the Carolina Panthers dealt veteran Diontae Johnson to the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday afternoon.
The Panthers traded Johnson and a future sixth-round draft pick in return for a future fifth-round pick. The move likely got done considering that the Panthers picked up the majority of Johnson's remaining salary, giving the Ravens a cheap deal to finish out the rest of the season before Johnson hits free agency this offseason.
With the group of potential wide receivers on the trade market dwindling, it will be interesting to see if the Bucs' brass decides to make any moves in this area before the deadline next week. If they weren't willing to part with a fifth-round pick for the services of someone like Johnson then it is hard to imagine them trading for a wideout.
