The Curious Case Of Tampa Bay Buccaneers Quarterback Jameis Winston
The Bucs QB is believed to be the hot seat in Tampa, but why?
So the crux of this entire article is: Is Jameis Winston a bust?
See usually a bust is a player is someone who is a complete failure or someone who gets hurt and can't continue playing at the level of their draft pick. Think JaMarcus Russell in terms of failure or RGIII in terms of injury.
Jameis, however, has played at an average quarterback level for most of his career and isn't injured.
So let's look at what constitutes a bust, and work backward to Jameis.
A draft bust is defined as when a highly touted or highly selected draftee does not meet expectations. The most important part of that statement is "does not meet expectations." Jameis Winston was the #1 overall pick in 2015, and his production and success don't match other #1 overall quarterbacks like Cam Newton and Andrew Luck, but Winston isn't JaMarcus Russell or Tim Couch bad either.
Winston is more of in the other class of quarterbacks that went #1 overall, the "WTF are you?" quarterbacks. This group contains guys like Matthew Stafford and Eli Manning, guys that have had success in this league but will occasionally look like hot garbage. Eli has two Super Bowl rings and Stafford is breaking a bunch of records in terms of fastest to x0,000 passing yards, but Eli is going to have his fifth losing season in six years and Stafford is going to end this season tied with Winston is Pro Bowl appearances, despite playing almost twice as long.
I think Stafford is better than Winston and Winston is better than current Eli, and there's a lot of talk about Eli being done.
This season, Winston compares really well to two quarterbacks, Case Keenum and Blake Bortles, a journeyman and a player who also got benched for poor play in Bortles. If you're a team having to question if the quarterback that you took #1 overall is capable of being your starting quarterback week after week, I think that qualifies as "does not meet expectations."
What hurt Jameis was both underperforming in terms of expectations, but also being in a weak quarterbacks class. The only other starter from the 2015 class is Mariota, who doesn't have a Pro Bowl like Winston, but has a playoff appearance and win that Winston doesn't.
Looking at that, you might wonder, well maybe the difference is the quality of the team around them, but Winston has one of the better receiving corps in football, as Ryan Fitzpatrick has proven in his starts with the same team. Winston has run the Bucs about as well as journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick.
I think this season proves that Winston is a bust, and Tampa Bay needs to get out of his $20+ million guaranteed option this offseason. Dirk Koetter is on the hot seat, so moving on from head coach and quarterback at the same time can help get in a new coach and QB that are on the same page. This draft class looks good, not great, at the quarterback position, so it makes sense to pull the trigger on moving on from the bust, Jameis Winston.
