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Buccaneers: Shutting Jameis down may be best move

By James Yarcho

TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 29: Quarterback Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers makes his way off the field following the Buccaneers' 17-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers at an NFL football game on October 29, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 29: Quarterback Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers makes his way off the field following the Buccaneers' 17-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers at an NFL football game on October 29, 2017 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images) /
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For the betterment of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the long term, it may be best to shelve Jameis Winston for the rest of 2017 to heal the shoulder.

It’s a tricky situation. See, this team had playoff aspirations and expectations, yet they’re sitting at 2-5 with no solutions in sight. For the Buccaneers, it’s closing in on time to be thinking about the future and considering this season a wash. In order to do so, it would mean shutting Jameis Winston down for the rest of the year to allow the shoulder to heal.

What we don’t want is an Andrew Luck situation. The Indianapolis Colts are currently staring a worst case scenario in the face. They expected to have Luck back at the beginning of the season, then it was pushed back to missing a few weeks, now they’re wondering if they’re gonna have to shut him down for the rest of the season. D’Qwell Jackson – Luck’s former teammate – said he believes this is career ending.

"If you take a step back and look at it, most of the guys with the injuries around the league, they’ve been out for eight, nine, ten months. We’re talking about career ending injuries. No one has mentioned that."

All this stems from Luck’s shoulder not healing properly, the re-aggravations, and now the set backs.

That brings us back to Winston.

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The Buccaneers are coming dangerously close to mathematical postseason elimination. Yes, they still have five division games left and winning all of those puts them virtually in the driver’s seat, but this team hasn’t given us much this season to think they can run the table. In fact, a loss to New Orleans Sunday all but seals their fate. Should that happen, Jameis should be shut down the next day.

Place him on injured reserve and allow him to begin doing whatever he needs to do to get right. Whether it’s surgery, rehab, whatever. Get that shoulder fixed so this doesn’t become an issue where the team becomes completely derailed because their franchise quarterback misses a full season from complications of an injury and may potentially never see the field again.

No, this doesn’t fix the inaccuracy issues. Those are what they are. He’s not the most accurate quarterback – especially on deep passes – but he’s not the most inaccurate either. With Winston, you take the bad with the good and the good far outweighs the bad. It does, however, put the Buccaneers in the best position to succeed moving forward.

Next: Week 8 Winners and Losers

This wasn’t a 2017 Super Bowl team. We expected better. We deserved better. Unfortunately, it appears that everything that can go wrong, will. Protecting the face of the franchise and ensuring he will be here for the next decade seems more important at the moment than trying to chase the near impossible playoff berth.

Check out our friends at the PewterCast below with their post game InstantCast call in show.

"WARNING: NSFW (EXPLICIT LANGUAGE) – Check out the latest PewterCast post-game Instant Cast. Brent and Ren discuss their thoughts following Week 8’s loss to the Carolina Panthers, and open up the phone for you all to voice yours as well!"

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