Chris Godwin Fantasy Outlook 2026: A Severe Ankle Injury, Then Mike Evans Left

What the injury actually was

Chris Godwin dislocated his ankle in Week 7 of 2024. Through six weeks he had been the second receiver in fantasy with 50 receptions, 576 yards, and five touchdowns. The injury required surgery and ended his season immediately.

A dislocation is not a sprain. The recovery timeline runs nine to twelve months before a player can cut at full speed. Godwin returned for the 2025 season opener at eleven months post-surgery and played nine games before Tampa shut him down after playoff elimination.

In those nine games he caught 33 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns. The sportsbooks had posted him at 54.18 receptions and 725.5 yards before the season. He missed both lines by roughly half, and his 9.2 points per game ranked 49th among qualified receivers.

The draft room is pricing him for what he did in 2025, not for what he might do seventeen months post-surgery with Mike Evans gone.

The parts of the profile that survived

Godwin finished exactly one game above 20 PPR points in nine appearances. Five came in under 10. The floor was gone, the ceiling appeared once, and the median outcome was a flex option you could not trust in lineups.

What did not disappear was the route-running. His separation metrics held, and Tampa continued to deploy him in the slot on third downs and in two-receiver sets. The role was intact. The efficiency converting that role into fantasy points was not, which is the expected shape of a player working back from a severe lower-body injury.

Tampa Bay restructured his contract in March to keep him through 2026 at $14 million guaranteed. NFL front offices do not pay that much for 360 yards unless they are projecting a return to form.