DeSean Jackson does not seem like he wants to be a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next season. His stance on a future with the team has been "we'll see," and he has publicly expressed a desire to play for the Los Angeles Rams.
The Bucs could end up trading him, but they could also simply release him, a move that would leave them with no dead money and save them the $10 million cap hit he would carry in 2019, per Spotrac.
That kind of money for a player who finished fourth on the team in target market share, especially an unhappy one, is not something Tampa is likely to spend. Losing Jackson's 12.1% target market share wouldn't be a big hit in a vacuum, but Adam Humphries, who ranked second on the team with a 16.8% market share, is also set to become an unrestricted free agent.
The departure of those two would leave 28.9% of the team's targets unaccounted for even before you factor in Jacquizz Rodgers (also set to hit free agency) and his 7.9% share.
While the Patriots' situation has a lot of uncertainty and could benefit a newcomer, the big beneficiary of this situation seems clear.
Mike Evans has his role established. He is consistently among the league leaders in target market share, and he ranked top 15 among wideouts around the league in that area last year.
Chris Godwin is heading into his third NFL season, and he saw a big jump in targets between his first two seasons, from 55 to 95. He finished ahead of DeSean Jackson with a 15.5% market share last year, and that mark stands to go way up with the void left in the receiving game.
Godwin played only 64% of the Bucs' offensive snaps last season, while Jackson played 52% and Humphries played 70%. His role also picked up in a big way down the stretch, though, eclipsing 80% of the team's snaps in three of their final four games and hitting 76% in the other.
We've already seen things starting to tilt in Godwin's favor in Tampa, and the potential departure of one or two of the team's other top-four wideouts will free up an even clearer path for him to reach new heights in both volume and production.
O.J. Howard should also pick up some increased looks. A tight end by name, Howard played a healthy role in the receiving game last year, tallying 48 targets over 10 games. His value doesn't stand to spike quite as much as Godwin's, but even a small bump is meaningful at a tight end position that proved to be a fantasy wasteland in 2018.