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It was widely speculated that the Buccaneers would definitely retain at least one of their top two free agents following the Super Bowl. There was no way theyd be able to keep wide receiver Chris Godwin as well as edge rusher Shaquil Barrett.

But they did.

Tampa Bay was able to place the franchise tag on Godwin and re-signed Barrett. They were moves all parties agreed to and now that we look back on it, it appears that there may have never been any doubt the Bucs werent keeping both.

Despite how seamless it may look now, general manager Jason Licht says that it was a chess game when asked how they were able to pull off retaining them.

All of these guys, they wanted to be here at the end of the day, why wouldnt you? Were coming off a Super Bowl, we have the GOAT at quarterback, a great head coach, great ownership, and a great town, Licht said on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Bill Lekas and Charlie Weis. It was a little bit of a chess game deciding what to do there. We wanted to make the move we felt had the best chance to keep both and it turned out we got it right and everybody is very happy about it.

Licht and the Buccaneers are returning all 22 starters from their Super Bowl roster. That makes them the first team in the salary cap era to do so.

Godwin and Barrett were huge hurdles they cleared early on to be able to do so.

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Bucs decision to bring back Godwin and Barrett was a chess game - Bucs Nation