Jameis Winston is the best quarterback in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history
By Dylan Grimm
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a franchise that have been historically carried by their defenses rather than quarterback play.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been apart of the National Football League for over 40 years now but have not found much success in that time. The biggest reason the Bucs franchise has never experienced a ton of success outside of the 2002 Super Bowl season where one of the best defenses ever win a championship against the Oakland Raiders, is due largely in part to below average quarterback play.
Most fans when asked who the best quarterback in team history will quickly answer Brad Johnson. Johnson after all is a Super Bowl champion but anyone who watched the Bucs in the early 2000’s would know that team was carried by a historic defense.
Johnson was the starter in Tampa Bay from 2001-2004 and in that time the team won it all in 2002 and won the division in 2001 as well. Over the course of his 16-year career, Johnson was a journeyman playing for five teams including the Minnesota Vikings twice.
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Johnson appeared in two Pro Bowls and finished his career with 166 touchdowns, 122 interceptions, 29,054 passing yards and a quarterback rating of 82.5. Johnson was nothing more than a game manager and a guy who did his very best to not put the team in harms way.
Since Johnson has left Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers have appeared in the playoffs only twice in that 14 season window. The team has seen a number of quality quarterbacks make a pit stop in Tampa Bay, but most of them were not in their primes when on the team or just were not that special… or prematurely traded. Steve Young (yikes), Jeff Garcia, Doug Williams and Vinny Testaverde are a few of the notable names to don the pewter and red over the years but none were amazing although they flashed at times.