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Buccaneers Round Table: Offensive Keep, Trade, and Release

By David Harrison

TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 1: Quarterback Jameis Winston #3 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers makes his way to the field with teammates before the start of an NFL football game against the New York Giants on October 1, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 1: Quarterback Jameis Winston #3 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers makes his way to the field with teammates before the start of an NFL football game against the New York Giants on October 1, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images) /
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TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 1: Wide receiver Mike Evans #13 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates with quarterback Jameis Winston #3 after hauling in a touchdown pass from Winston during the first quarter of an NFL football game against the New York Giants on October 1, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 1: Wide receiver Mike Evans #13 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates with quarterback Jameis Winston #3 after hauling in a touchdown pass from Winston during the first quarter of an NFL football game against the New York Giants on October 1, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images) /

Sean Eck

Having to choose which 66.6% of your franchise cornerstones to part ways with is no easy task.  This is the type of decision General Manager Jason Licht would be torn apart for, but here goes.

Keep Mike Evans

When talking about the best wide receivers in football the name, Mike Evans has to come into the conversation.  He is the prototypical big go to outside receiver that teams covet almost as much as quarterbacks.

In Evans first three years as a Buccaneers, he has yet to record under 1,000-yards.  Evans is the type of player that provides consistency and is almost impossible to replace.

Last season Evans was ranked as the 12th best player in the NFL by Pro Football Focus.  Not the 12th best wide receiver, but the 12th best overall player.  This was coming from someone who was only in his 3rd year in the league.

Mike was the highest ranked receiver in the regular season grading out at 93.3 overall and the only offensive skills position player to rank inside the top 20. The next closest was Antonio Brown who was the single other wide receiver in the top 50 overall.

Trade Jameis Winston

Winston has consistently gotten better over his first two years, but the improvement isn’t enough to keep him over Evans.

Back to back, 4,000 yard passing seasons are impressive, but the mental mistakes are what hold Winston back from being a must keep for the franchise.

Being only three years out of the #1 overall pick the Buccaneers could get a plethora of draft picks for him.  These could end up being top five picks over the next few years that we could use to help fix our pass rush and other issues.

Trading Winston would also give the Buccaneers the freedom to sign an established signal caller such as Kirk Cousins. Cousins could lead the current Buccaneers team for the next decade and have great success doing so.  Kirk is a player still under 30 years of age who has two years of being a starting quarterback under his belt. He has produced far superior number than Winston with much less talent around him.

Having multiple first round picks in the next couple of years NFL Draft would also allow us to target a quarterback.

Release Doug Martin

Martin is entering his 6th NFL season, and he has been the definition of inconsistent.  Two seasons of over 1,400-yards rushing along with three seasons of under 500-yards rushing. Those are Martin’s previous five seasons with the Buccaneers.

Granted the two 1,400-yard seasons he was able to stay healthy and play all 16 games, but those are the only seasons he has been able to stay on the field.

Injuries and off-field transgressions have cost Martin 27 of 82 games. That means Martin has not played in more than 31% of his games since being drafted.

The Buccaneers rushing game is a mess right now. Martin coming back might be a nice spark, but we are still 0-1 with him in the lineup.

Of the three listed losing Martin would be the lesser of the evils and in the short term and long run be the least costly for the Buccaneers.

Sean Eck, FIU Panther, contributor thepewterplank.com Follow me for more articles like this on twitter @Sean_Eck #gobucs

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