Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jameis Winston 33rd among top NFL Draft picks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans seem to hate or love quarterback Jameis Winston. The fourth-year quarterback is off to a stellar statistical career, but his win/loss block has been a mixed bag.
Furthering the debate is the amount of turnovers suffered by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the hands of their quarterback. Some his fault, and some not so much. Still, when the ball is leaving your hands just to land in the hands of an opponent, it’s always going to be tied to you.
As the first overall selection in the 2015 NFL Draft, Winston was in tight contention with Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota as the top prospect and quarterback in the class.
While Lovie Smith got his guy in Winston, it became public knowledge offensive coordinator and current head coach Dirk Koetter preferred Mariota.
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Instead, Mariota went to the Titans and the two players and franchises are forever locked in step to measure which team made the better selection.
NFL.com’s Elliot Harrison has taken to measuring the success and value of Winston in a different comparative model. By ranking all 51 modern-era first overall selections.
From top to bottom, every player involved had just one requirement: That they were the first guy taken in their class.
As you may have deduced from the headline here, the most recent Tampa Bay Buccaneers first overall pick came in 33rd overall.
Here’s some of what Harrison had to say in his writing,
"“Jameis Winston has probably carried as much team responsibility as any three-year player in recent memory. The Bucs revolve around his play, and they often fail or succeed because of it. In fairness to Winston’s good-but-not-great-enough 2017 campaign, too much is on him.”"
Harrison continued on in his narrative by comparing Winston to Rams quarterback Jared Goff and eludes to a poor running game as dragging Tampa’s passing game down a bit.
There have been some other first overall selections in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history. Ricky Bell, Bo Jackson, Vinny Testaverde, and Lee Roy Selmon are included in the bunch.
Selmon finished with the top ranking among former Bucs placing ninth on Harrison’s list.
Not surprising of course, considering he’s the only Pro Football Hall of Famer on the list.
It’s hard to argue with many of the names Harrison ranked ahead of Winston in this year’s comparative. With the team getting some key players back and healthy, and the additions of others, the Bucs could reach some of the heights fans hoped they would in 2017.
A post-season birth would certainly help out.
What do you think of the list and Winston’s placing on it? Do you think he should beat out any guys ranked higher than him, or do you even think he should be ranked lower?
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