Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Todd Monken spoke to the media and stressed the importance of what Jameis Winston needs to – and needs not to – focus on.
We’ve said it repeatedly during the past three years. Sometimes, it’s okay for Jameis Winston to give up on a play, throw away the ball, and live to play another down. Many times we witness Winston force a ball where it has no business going. Sometimes it turns in to an amazing, jaw-dropping play that we’re thankful happened. Other times, it puts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a bind, a hole they have to crawl out from.
That’s what makes Jameis Jameis.
You don’t want to remove that mentality from his game. Once you take away the essence of what makes a player who they are, they become a shell of their former self. That’s when they get labeled a bust. We like to compare Winston to that of Brett Favre. A quarterback who feels he can make any pass at any point in a game. Favre saw the same results. Sometimes it resulted in highlight reel level incredibility. Other times, it cost his team the game.
There’s no question that Winston is the undisputed leader of the Buccaneers. Whether it’s showing up to greet rookies on their first day, being the last man out of the tunnel because he wants to look every teammate in the eyes and tell them to have a good game, or whether it’s pre-game speeches like the one that brought the team together following the death of Kwon Alexander‘s brother – or one that he will never live down in “eating a W.” Jameis Winston is the guy you want to be the backbone of your franchise and the man his teammates lean on when a game is on the line.
Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken spoke about Winston and what he expects from him moving forward;
"“The thing is, what I’ve in seen, irrespective of the physical stuff on the field, is, ‘Let’s not try so hard.’ He has natural-it’s who he is as a man-natural leadership qualities and a toughness about him. Guys want to follow him. [My message to him is], ‘It’s okay to fail, it’s okay, you’re human, it’s okay to be hurt. It’s okay to have that side of you so let’s just go, you don’t have to try so hard. The guys will follow you, just be yourself.’”"
Jameis is going to be Jameis. He’s going to be like a big kid on the field who just loves to play the game – again, comparable to that of the great Brett Favre. However, there is a certain level of maturity that will have to be developed, or adopted, by Winston to curb those problems we see. The untimely turnovers, the inability to accept that a play is dead and it’s best to move on to the next one. That’s what Monken is looking for. That’s the leader – on and off the field – he expects Winston to develop into.
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There’s no one I would rather have under center at this point and for the future than Winston, but Winston nor the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ fans should become complacent in how he is right now. We want to see the continued development that could – and should – lead to greatness in the (near) future. Hopefully Monken and head coach Dirk Koetter are the combination to take him to that plateau.