Tampa Bay Buccaneers ranked 29th in the NFL ‘by their franchise QBs’

NFL.com ranked every NFL team by their franchise quarterbacks throughout history and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came in at 29.

In quite the adventurous piece written by NFL.com’s Ali Bhanpuri, he ranked each NFL franchise by their history of franchise quarterbacks, and surprisingly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did not come in dead last in the rankings. The Buccaneers beat out the Houston Texans, Chicago Bears, and Detroit Lions to land 29th on the list as they had only two quarterbacks, Jameis Winston and Brad Johnson who qualified for the criteria.

The criteria used to rank this list was a three-part assessment, the quarterback had to have a winning season, a minimum passer rating of 75.0, and at least one Pro Bowl selection. Winston and Johnson have each met those criteria while the Texans and Bears only have one quarterback each to make the list.

Bhanpuri does admit that he potentially ranked the Buccaneers too high, stating:

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"“[Matt] Stafford has been more effective and prolific than both Johnson and Winston, but the former’s got the jewerly, while the latter could be poised for a career resurrection under new head coach Bruce Arians. I’m probably betting too much on Winston’s potential” (Bhanpuri via NFL.com)."

Over his 54 career starts, Winston has averaged a passer rating of 87.8, just beating out Johnson’s 83.2; Johnson, however, has the hardware to show off during his time with the Buccaneers for driving the Buccaneers’ offense during their 2002 Super Bowl year.

It is a fair assessment to rank the Buccaneers as a bottom three teams as they are a franchise historically carried by their stellar defenses. In fact, all four faces on Tampa Bay’s Mt. Rushmore of the four best players are defensive players.

The Buccaneers have a long way to go before the catch the long line of quarterback greats throughout history that the number one ranked Dallas Cowboys have. They remain in a murky quarterback situation to this day, but Bhanpuri is a believer in the turnaround of Winston; 2019 should be a wild season under center in Tampa Bay.