Jameis Winston Reflects on his Rookie Season

After posting a solid rookie season, Jameis Winston spent a few minutes looking back.

Jameis Winston played solidly in his rookie season, growing as he played. 22 touchdowns through the air, six more on the ground, versus 15 interceptions is nothing to be ashamed of for a rookie quarterback. Growing through the season, Winston posted a rating of at least an 80 in three out of the last four games. Even more importantly, he handled himself like a franchise quarterback off the field as well.

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Recently, Winston sat down with Peter King for his Monday Morning Quarterback piece, and spent some time looking back at the year gone by. Here are some of the more interesting quotes.

First, take a look at what his biggest takeaway was from the 2015 season:

"One important thing I learned: When you turn the ball over in the NFL, you don’t know when you are going to get that chance back. At Florida State, I knew that I was going to get that chance back, because we were one of the better teams in college football. We were going to get another chance, so that turnover wouldn’t kill us. Whereas in the NFL, everyone is good, so you never know when you are going to get that chance back. In the NFL, you have to take advantage of every opportunity that you get, and if you don’t, you’ll usually lose."

Here is a lesson that every quarterback should learn, and not enough of them do. Ask Jets’ fans and Browns’ fans, just to name a couple. In college, there are teams that are the class of the NCAA, and the teams that aren’t. Those good teams are aware that if you turn the ball over, you likely will get the ball back with little harm done.

In the NFL, you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get, and if you don’t, you’ll usually lose.

In the NFL, the difference between any two teams is minimal. Turnovers are killer. Jameis learned that quickly, and seems to understand the importance of protecting the football. That is what you want your leader to get, and get it quickly. We will see on the field, but Winston understand what he needs to.

Take a look at what Winston’s days were like, it’s very interesting to really understand what he went through:

"Quarterbacks show up 15 minutes before every practice, and we just do drills. We do footwork drills, high-knee crossovers and drops, karaoke on the line, keeping the ball up and pushed back. That was a struggle of mine … I always used to drop the ball [hold it low] while being in the pocket. It was just repetition of doing the right things, day after day. During our individual drills, we worked on intense things. It wasn’t just your typical team, where maybe they just throw it around and wait for the next period. Coach Bajakian has us working at all times. We repped so many things that they become habits.“A lot of what we did was just developing good habits. When I woke up, average day, I came in about 5:45, ate breakfast, got in the hot tub, then went and watched film with the coaches, and we carried on our whole day and schedule as a team. And then at the end I would watch some more film and then leave. I got to dedicate the whole day to football. I had some of the best days of my life this year."

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And we will leave it with Winston’s lesson for a future rookie quarterback:

"I would tell them to keep everything simple. When I first got into this league I tried to bring that mentality that every play is going to be a big play. But now I think that this play might be the play that determines the outcome of this game. I used to be a freelancer, out there playing and having fun, doing whatever, but I had to learn that this position … coach Bajakian said something to me after the Carolina game that stuck with me the whole season. He said, ‘When you look at the football, the NFL football, you see the NFL shield, and you see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers flag on the football. If you protect that flag, if you protect the football, only good things can happen. If you give this flag away to opposing teams, if the opposing team touches your flag more than you touch theirs, then there is no way you can be successful."