Winston or Bust

Jameis Winston was drafted by the Buccaneers to lead the team to championships, and that however, has not been the case. Since being drafted, his career win and loss percentage is .389 (21-33.) As a fan, I, along with other Buccaneers fans, can point the finger at the QB1 position, which is fair because the quarterback is the lead position on the team. But there are 52 other players on the roster that contribute at some point during the season.

So why not hold the other players accountable as well as the coaches?

As Winston is on the last year of his contract and playing for his future as a Buc, I would like to venture to say that the blame is not primarily on Winston. Throughout his career as a Buccaneer, the team has lacked a balanced approach, and with weapons like Mike Evans, Cameron Brate, and OJ Howard it is understandable why the team has been pass heavy. If that was the only reason for the imbalance, then yes, Winston is to blame. But it isn’t. The Bucs have not had a solid starting running back in a while since Alstott and Dunn, at least not in Winston’s time. Some would say Doug Martin, but he was too inconsistent with his time as a Bucs running back, with only two good seasons.

So, with no running game, the pressure is on Winston’s shoulders. Think about what every scout and personality says when you draft a young QB, “You need to have a good running game to take that pressure off of the quarterback.” Now I am not saying Peyton Barber is not a good running back, he is, but he hasn’t been able to do enough, (no fault of his own), to help Winston. The offensive line has not been steady as well. In 2015, Winston’s first year, the o-line ranked 9th in the league, but after that year they have dropped all the way to 31st.

Obviously coaching plays a role as well, hence why Koetter and his staff are gone, and Arians and his staff are in. With new coaching and direction should come more opportunities for the players on the roster and the ones added to get better. There is still plenty of youth on the team, and Winston still has this season to prove all of the Tampa Bay Bucs fans wrong and show that he is worthy to lead this team in the future.