Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Godchaux: Sky’s the limit
Defensive tackle excited to play with Tua, other additions
Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Davon Godchaux is eager to get back to work.
He’s excited about the team’s additions of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his new teammates on defense — and is confident the franchise can live up to higher expectations in the second year of their extensive rebuilding process.
But getting back on the field can wait — for now.
Godchaux, who is trying to make the most of his time away from virtual team meetings and workouts, also made a conscious effort to give back to the South Florida community.
Godchaux purchased 100 Papa John’s pizzas on Wednesday for healthcare workers at Jackson North Medical Center in North Miami Beach as a contribution from his personal endeavor, the Chauxdown Foundation.
“All the stuff they’re doing during this [coronavirus] pandemic in a crazy world, it was a blessing to do that,” Godchaux told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“It means everything. I can’t show my appreciation enough,” said Godchaux, the Dolphins’ nominee for the NFL’s Walter
Payton Man of the Year award. “A guy like me, we’re always on the field with helmets on our heads, so anytime I get to take the helmet off and get into the community and do something like that, especially for the health workers and nurses working on this crazy situation in this world. Anytime I can get to do something like that, it’s amazing.”
Any other NFL offseason, Godchaux would be united with his teammates at the team’s Davie practice facility participating in voluntary offseason training activities.
He would have been the first to inform rookies Tagovailoa and defensive tackle Raekwon Davis — who “played at a high
level school at Alabama,” as he put it — which SEC team reigns supreme after his LSU Tigers won the national title last season.
Godchaux also would have gotten acquainted with new defensive teammates who joined the team in free agency like outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, defensive linemen Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah and cornerback Byron Jones.
And he would have been in the mix to properly welcome rookies like Davis, defensive lineman Jason Strowbridge and edge rusher Curtis Weaver to the team.
Instead, NFL facilities remain closed due to coronavirus concerns, leaving Godchaux excited about the team’s potential return to work.
Godchaux vividly remembers the season opener last season, when Pompano Beach native Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens routed the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium, 59-10.
He believes Miami’s new additions can help the Dolphins defense rise “from the bottom all the way up.”
“We have to put the work in day by day and earn each other’s trust. At the end of the day, it’s all about taking it one day at a time. But, I think, the sky’s the limit for us,” Godchaux said.
“I want to be one of the leaders on the D-line. I want to be a stingy defense. I want to get all the takeaways and I don’t want to give up any points.”
To do his part this offseason,
Godchaux has taken up cycling and recently had a 40-mile bike ride he shared progress of on social media.
“I feel great. I feel like I’m the best shape I’ve ever been in,” Godchaux said.
Godchaux also had a massive tattoo recently inked on his bicep. The tattoo looks like an enlarged corner of a $5 dollar bill with the number 178 below, representing where he was drafted by the Dolphins with the No. 178 pick in the fifth round of the 2017 draft.
“It reminds me to stay humble and to never get complacent, to always stay working and never forget where I come from,” he said of the new artwork.
Godchaux hopes his teammates also are making the most of their personal offseason training activities.
“Of course, you know it’s hard. I want to work out. I want to go to the gym. I’ve been doing my bike riding, my weights, my conditioning after that. I’m just trying to stay out the way and stay out of town as much as I can,” Godchaux said.
“But at the end of the day, I still have to be active. I don’t want to hear guys come back and say, ‘Coach, I couldn’t work out because of this coronavirus.’ That’s a bunch of excuses, you know? But I expect everybody to come in on the same page, and everybody come in grinding.
“The team just wants everybody to stay safe,” he added. “If we do that, we come back in shape, and everybody comes back on the same page, the sky’s the limit.”