It’s time.
It’s been one of the most hotly debated subjects in Tampa Sports the last five years. You either love home or hate him.
Jameis Winston has been the Buccaneers starting quarterback since the 2015 season when he was the number one draft pick out of Florida State.
Winston has shown flashes of brillance e at times leading us all to believe that in fact he was the guy that would end the Bucs playoff drought and take the Buccaneers to their second. Super Bowl.
At other times it looks as if should not even be playing in the NFL.
In 62 career starts Winston has thrown 68 interceptions while fumbling 26 times. That is 94 turnovers in 62 games. Not a recipie for championship football.
Winston has played behind a below average offensive line since he has been in Tampa. So has Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh and DeShaun Watson in Houston.
The Texans offensive line allowed 62 sacks last season and DeShaun Watson was on the receiving end of the majority of those sacks. Yet, Watson had the Texans in the playoffs.
We can longer accept Bruce Arians excuses for the poor play of Winston. You a are not always going to have a great offensive line, or a stellar running game. Good quarterbacks are able to carry their team on their backs if need be at certain points of the season and will them to victory.
Winston has not been able to do that, nor will he ever be able to do that.
No one will question Winstons ability or his work ethic. What we can question is his decision making and his propensity for throwing an interception, fumbling the ball, or just making a boneheaded play with the football at crucial moments in teh game. That has been his Achilles heel throughout his NFL career.
Winston has had above average receivers and a below average running game. The offensive line has been in the bottom third of the NFL in most seasons with Winston as the quarterback.
Good quarterbacks find a way to get it done. Winston has not.
Bruce Arians was brought in primarily to help Winston reach the next level. Arians is known in NFL circles as the “quarterback whisperer”. He has helped the careers of Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, and Andrew Luck.
Now, Arians is facing one of the biggest challenges of his career, and that is helping Jameis Winston make better decisions with the football. So far it has not gone the way Arians had hoped it would be going six games into the season as Winston has thrown 12 interceptions and fumbled four times.
Maybe its time for Winston to Tuen into the “quarterback screamer” instead of being the “quarterback whisperer.”
The fans have seen enough and suffered enough. The Bucs have to move on from Winston and go in a different direction for the future. Winston is not the future in Tampa.
The 2020 draft is loaded with good quarterbacks and the Bucs need to consider taking one of those quarterbacks in the first round.
Tua Tagovailoa Of Alabama, Justin Herbert of Oregon, Joe Burrow of LSU whose draft stock is rising weekly, and Jake Fromm of Georgia are just a few of the top college quarterbacks that the
Bucs should be considering in the first round.
Winston will probably go on and be a decent backup quarterback. He will even have those quarters and games of good quarterback play. But his inconsistency and lack of good decisions on the football field will continue to cause Winston to be a mediocre quarterback.
It’s time the Bucs realize that the Winston experiment has failed. It’s time to move on. The franchise needs a new face at quarterback in 2020.
If the Bucs sign Winston to a huge contract to be their quarterback, you can expect a few more years of no playoffs and further erosion of the Buccaneer fan base.
Hopefully, Jason Licht and the front office make the right decision and move on from Jameis Winston in 2020.
