Chris Godwin says Jameis Winston ‘got more of the blame than he deserved’

One of Jameis Winston’s favorite targets last season is coming to the defense of the exiled quarterback.

In an interview this week on “The Boardroom” with Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, Tampa Bay Bucs receiver Chris Godwin discussed Winston’s struggles in 2019.

@Boardroom w/ Bucs WR Chris Godwin @CGtwelve_ defends Jameis Winston, “I definitely think he got more of the blame than he deserved”. #Bucs
Watch entire convo here:https://t.co/jkS9s09Hni pic.twitter.com/d8yXxhd4vx

— Ros Gold-Onwude (@ROSGO21) March 30, 2020

“There have been times where maybe he held onto the ball too long and there will be like a strip-sack,” said Godwin. “Or there was a bad read on his part and he threw it to the wrong guy. But on the other side, there have been times where receivers have ran the wrong route. I’ve been guilty of either running the wrong route or just being in a different spot than he thought I was going to be, and then you get an interception, you get a turnover.”

“It’s not just him, it’s the collective,” the 2019 Pro Bowler continued. “And I think that people that are really entrenched in football understand that … I definitely think he got more of the blame than he deserved. I think he’s a really, really talented quarterback. Obviously there are some things he does that you can’t teach. There are some plays that he made that just weren’t smart plays. But a lot of the interceptions and the mistakes that he made, I would say at least half of them were because of a bad read on somebody else’s part. And the great thing about him is he’s not gonna go out there, he’s not gonna throw anybody under the bus. He’s gonna own up to it, he’s gonna take it, he’s gonna be a leader, and like I said, there’s respect to that.”

Winston, who led the NFL in both passing yards and interceptions last season, was a popular target of criticism for his errant play en route to a 7-9 finish for the Bucs. Through it all though, Godwin himself managed to have a career year catching passes from Winston, pulling down 86 of them for 1,331 yards and nine touchdowns.

With Tom Brady arriving in Tampa Bay, Winston is now the odd man out and will almost certainly have to find a new home as a free agent. But at least Godwin’s parting take on Winston was more sympathetic than Bruce Arians’.