Despite the opinions of some – even within this site – I am still firmly planted 100% behind Jameis Winston being the Buccaneers’ future.
I wasn’t going to do this. I didn’t feel it was worth putting in writing. Perhaps just talk about it on the Walking The Plank podcast or try to interact with you all on Twitter or Facebook about it. However, the column from Sean Eck on Tuesday created such a massive backlash from Buccaneers fans, it felt almost necessary to present the other side of the argument. After having someone I respect talk to me and really push for this to happen, here I am penning a column having to defend something I never thought I’d have to defend.
Jameis Winston is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise quarterback.
People are going to have their opinions and while the vast vocal majority yesterday became angry that not only did one of my writers say he didn’t believe that Winston was the guy and should potentially even be traded, but that I had the audacity to publish it. Let’s get that out of the way first – unless someone does something outside FanSided guidelines or is writing blatant lies, I will not censor my staff. They have every right to express any opinion they have whether the majority agrees or not. And believe or not, there are people that are on Sean’s side about this.
I just don’t happen to be one of those people.
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I was with another website before this, back in 2014 when the Buccaneers went a putrid 2-14, “earning” the number one pick and I remember how pumped I was that they could get Marcus Mariota. I was all in. That is until I had to sit down and do my job. I began researching each player for columns I was working on making the case for each guy to be the number one pick. I went through game after game after game of both Winston and Mariota. I dove into researching the “problems” Winston caused while at Florida State, the allegations he faced, the character concerns. I broke down everything I could on each player to tell everyone why each guy should lead the Buccaneers and came away with this conclusion;
If the Bucs don’t draft Jameis Winston, I will lose my mind.
He won me over. His play, his attitude, his leadership, his off-field concerns being a lot to do about nothing. Jameis had to be the guy for the Bucs. Nothing against Mariota – he’s the perfect guy for the Titans. Jameis was what the Bucs needed. He’s what the city of Tampa needed. And I have yet to waiver from that sentiment.
Are there things about Winston’s game that desperately need improving? Of course. He can be erratic. He takes too long to “get in a groove” being one of the main contributors to the slow starts, and he might be the worst deep ball passer in the NFL. These aren’t fundamental break downs. These are fixable problems. And if they can’t be fixed, they can be game planned around to put him in the best situation to succeed.
Even with all those issues, I wouldn’t trade him for any quarterback in the league right now. Some would argue Aaron Rodgers, sure. And yeah, Rodgers with these weapons would be magic – but for how long? It doesn’t feel like it, but Rodgers has been in the league for thirteen seasons and is over ten years older than Jameis. For the sake of argument – Jameis is 23 years old and Rodgers didn’t start a game until he was already 24 years old. Winston is young and people tend to forget that.
They want to point out that he’s in his third year – which is of course 100% true – but there are rookies coming in this season that are already older than he is. There is something to be said about maturing into a top-tier NFL player, especially at quarterback. Even the greats had struggles early on. Don’t believe me? Check out Winston’s numbers against Peyton Manning‘s in the first few years of their career.
There is a difference between elite and franchise quarterbacks. People seem to forget that. How many elite quarterbacks are there in the NFL? Three? Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees. That’s about it. There are plenty of franchise quarterbacks. Mariota, Matt Ryan, Andy Dalton, Andrew Luck, Philip Rivers, Cam Newton, Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, etc. That doesn’t make those players elite. They can have MVP caliber seasons, but they aren’t the year in, year out top of the NFL guys.
What they do is provide stability, promise, and the opportunity to win. Not every Super Bowl winning quarterback is elite. However, a franchise guy can put his team in a position to get to one and win it. That’s what Jameis Winston is. A guy who has won at the top level of college football – as a freshman. A guy who is already on pace to break every Buccaneers passing record by the end of his third season. A guy that rejuvenated a franchise, a fan base, and a city.
Jameis Winston is my guy.
What I’ve come to discover about Bucs fans that get so angry at the sheer notion or someone’s opinion that Winston isn’t that guy is simply this – as a fan base, we are overly sensitive about the quarterback position. We’ve waited for so long for this team to get the first franchise quarterback in Bucs’ history that we’ve become snake bit. We thought Vinny Testaverde was the guy, he wasn’t. Trent Dilfer? Nope. Shaun King? Chris Simms? Steve Young? Josh Freeman? We’ve seen this movie over and over and over and it always turns out the same. We have excitement that we finally have the guy, only to get slapped in face with disappointment.
So now that the Bucs have yet another guy we all believe in, we all think is the quarterback we’ve been so desperate to have for over 40 years, fans get angry and defensive. They don’t want that history to repeat itself. They don’t want that crushing disappointment. They don’t want that hope to disappear. That’s what they think when someone criticizes Jameis or questions if he really is the guy. They have flashbacks of Freeman, of Dilfer, of seeing Steve Young win in San Francisco. It’s personal.
As we talked about with Trevor Sikkema on the Walking The Plank podcast (below), Winston provides hope. Hope that we see the franchise continue to evolve, grow, and improve. Hope that they will be consistent playoff contenders. Hope that he can lead this team back to the Super Bowl and bring home a Lombardi Trophy.
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And for those that doubt him, let me just say this. In all of Brett Favre‘s seasons, as great as he was, as exciting as he was, and as clutch as he was, he also made crucial mistakes in crucial situations. He managed to end his Hall of Fame career with merely one Super Bowl ring. Wouldn’t you have take Favre for all those years we were in quarterback Hell? Won’t you be satisfied if Winston can have that kind of longevity for this team? Wouldn’t you take one championship from him?
I know I would.
Check out the latest Walking The Plank Podcast and be sure to give some love to our friends at The PewterCast – both shows listed below.