No more excuses: It’s time for the Buccaneers to move on from Jameis Winston

After a six game sample size in the 2019 season, it is apparent that the Buccaneers are getting the same Jameis Winston from the past four years.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers can no longer afford to suffer under the leadership, or lack thereof, of Jameis Winston.

It’s time.

So far in 2019, he has thrown for an abysmal 12 touchdowns and ten interceptions and has a 39.5 passer rating; 25th in the NFL.

But Winston’s play this season is only the bookend of a mediocre and streaky career at best.

Jameis Winston leads the NFL in interceptions, turnovers and fumbles since he entered the league in 2015. Simply put, he’s irresponsible with the ball and is a bonafide turnover machine. Buccaneer fans line up to make excuses for him every day while the rest of the league laughs at the team’s willingness to put up with his poor play and pay him millions of dollars to do it.

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Many fans put the entirety of his misfortune on the offensive line, and it’s true that they are not without blame. In fact, quarterback protection is the main thing the Buccaneers focus on in the offseason with free agency and the NFL draft.

Some fans say that the myriad of coaching staffs and scheme changes is to blame, but Winston has failed to grasp any of the offenses designed to work around his strengths.

Others even have the audacity to say that he doesn’t have enough weapons on a team with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate.

There are even fans that blame the consistently poor running game as the reason why he throws so many interceptions, that Jameis shouldn’t have to throw the ball so many times a game, regardless of the fact that he’s third in the NFC South in passing attempts per game.  Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, Matt Stafford, and even Tom Brady all average more attempts per game.

The cold hard truth is that Jameis has shown little to no progression in his decision-making ability in five years.

By the way… It’s been five years.

I grew up a Florida State fan. My grandparents took me to nearly every home football game from when I was around six years old all the way until I graduated high school. I watched Jameis’s entire career in college, and I still hoped that the Bucs would draft Marcus Mariota. Remember the inexplicable fumble he had against Oregon in the college football playoffs in 2014? That was a sign of things to come.

Mariota hasn’t necessarily shined in Nashville even when he’s healthy, but guess what he also isn’t doing? He isn’t leading the NFL in interceptions, fumbles and turnovers.

The worst part about Winston’s play is that he does occasionally have flashes of brilliance that blinds fans and even occasionally analysts to the other 14 or 15 games each season in which he boasts supremely disappointing play. Once or twice a season, he’ll have a four-touchdown, 400-yard passing game that will leave naive fans comparing him to the likes of Peyton Manning and Brett Favre.

For the record, those are horrible comparisons.

Winston holds the ball too long and forces horrible passes into windows that he’s just not accurate enough to thread the ball through. And the kicker? He’s getting paid $22 million to play poorly.

So why pay a bottom-ten quarterback top-ten quarterback money?

It’s simple; you don’t.

The fan opinion seems to be that the Bucs have no better options, and that simply is not true. Some prospective first-round quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft include Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Jake Fromm, Joe Burrow (who head coach Bruce Arians is apparently fond of), Jacob Eason, Sam Ehlinger and Jalen Hurts. These are all marquee quarterbacks who have talented arms, more potential and possibly higher football IQs than Winston.

And those are just the reasons to get rid of Jameis Winston that lie inside the lines.

Jameis Winston is a liability on and off of the field and he has been since his days in college. It seems he hasn’t matured as a quarterback or as a person in five years. He’s had his fair share of scandals, many of them at Florida State. From the incident with the Uber driver, to infamously “forgetting” to pay for crab legs at a Publix in Tallahassee and everything in between, there aren’t any reasons to cling to the rotting corpse that was his potential as an NFL quarterback.

Jameis will end up playing for another team, but he will more than likely spend the rest of his carer as a backup. As an organization, it’s time for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to finally admit the mistake that was handing the reigns of the team to Jameis Winston and finally move on to greener pastures.