(Photo credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images)

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are working toward a new contract for wide receiver Chris Godwin as general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles rained praise on him when speaking to reporters at the scouting combine Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Godwin, who is coming off a dislocated left ankle that limited him to a career-low seven games in 2024, is a pending free agent due to an upcoming automatic void year in his contract. The Bucs and Godwin's camp pushed that void date back to March 12.

'Obviously, Chris is a great player, and I love him to death, and we want him back here every way possible,' Bowles said. 'Obviously, we have to heal and there's medical things going on right there and they're trying to work through that but hopefully we can get them back because he was on a tear before he got hurt.'

Godwin racked up 50 receptions for 576 yards and five touchdowns in his seven games in 2024. He suffered his injury late in a Week 7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

That put Godwin in a similar situation to 2022, when he was recovering from ACL and MCL tears and entered unrestricted free agency. He returned to Tampa Bay on a three-year, $60 million deal after receiving the franchise tag as a placeholder.

'If there was anybody on the team I thought could come back from an injury that I would pick, that I would bet on, it would be him,' Bowles said of Godwin. 'Because his work ethic, his confidence, the way he attacks treatment, the way he tries every day to be the best he could be. ... He's probably the best at it on our team.'

As for Licht, he said the calculus for evaluating a free agent recovering from an injury doesn't change at all.

'The facts are he had a serious injury, missed a lot of time and there's still some uncertainty with any injury like that at this point,' Licht said. 'We moved the void so it gives us more options and more flexibility as it pertains to him. We've just got to make a good decision.

'We, hopefully, can come to an agreement with him because Chris means the world to this organization -- to all of us individually, but to the organization as a whole, nobody has been more resilient than him. We've been down this road before, a similar path with him. Nobody has been more resilient and works harder than him.'

Godwin, who turns 29 on Thursday, was the Bucs' third-round draft pick in 2017 and was a Pro Bowl selection in 2019, when he posted career highs of 1,333 yards and nine touchdowns to go with 86 receptions. He won Super Bowl LV with the Bucs and has amassed 579 catches for 7,266 yards and 39 TD receptions, plus two rushing touchdowns, in 111 career games (84 starts).

--Field Level Media