Bucs’ Godwin doubtless out for 12 months, Evans till bye

Tampa Bay Buccaneers broad receiver Chris Godwin will bear surgical procedure on his dislocated left ankle harm and can “most likely be out for the 12 months,” whereas broad receiver Mike Evans doubtless can be out till after the crew’s Week 11 bye as a consequence of his hamstring harm, coach Todd Bowles mentioned Tuesday.

Each of the crew’s star broad receivers have been injured in Monday evening’s 41-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Bowles left open the likelihood that Godwin might return later this season. Evans, in the meantime, was “hurting fairly good” Monday, Bowles mentioned.

With 1:04 left in regulation, Godwin caught a move from Baker Mayfield and was tackled from behind by inside linebacker Roquan Smith, with Godwin’s left ankle showing to get caught beneath Smith.

Smith’s deal with seems to have all the weather of a hip-drop deal with and is being reviewed by the NFL, sources advised ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Tuesday. Whether it is deemed to be a hip-drop deal with, Smith can be topic to a wonderful.

Godwin and Evans entered the sport tied for the league lead with 5 landing receptions over Tampa Bay’s first six video games, with Mayfield calling them a “enormous heartbeat of this crew.”

Bowles defended preserving Godwin and different starters within the sport regardless of it being out of attain with two onside kicks already tried and no timeouts remaining, saying, “We do not second-guess,” and pointing to the truth that the crew was already with out Evans.

Evans, who entered the sport with a hamstring pressure however was decided to play, caught a 25-yard landing move from Mayfield on the opening drive, making him simply the eleventh participant in NFL historical past to achieve 100 receiving touchdowns.

However within the second quarter, Mayfield tried to search out Evans in the long run zone on a 25-yard go route towards Brandon Stephens and Evans could not dangle on to the move. Evans fell to the bottom and grabbed the again of his leg whereas writhing in ache.

Evans and Godwin sit No. 1 and a pair of for the Bucs in profession receiving yards. Evans had hoped to tie Jerry Rice this season for probably the most consecutive 1,000-yard seasons after recording 10 in his first 10 campaigns. Up till this level, Evans has missed solely 9 regular-season video games, with simply seven as a consequence of harm or sickness.

However for Godwin, that is the second main career-threatening harm he has handled, having torn an ACL and an MCL in Week 15 of the 2021 season. Godwin mentioned he lastly felt as if he was again to his outdated self this summer season, and a number of other teammates and coaches took discover too.

ESPN’s Jenna Laine contributed to this report.