Bucs look to get Jackson on track
TAMPA — DeSean Jackson was fuming on the sidelines after quarterback Jameis Winston threw behind him during a failed twopoint conversion-attempt pass in the fourth quarter Sunday.
Jackson stormed down the bench, throwing his gloves to the ground and yelling in frustration.
Jackson was targeted six times in the Bucs’ 25-23 win over the New York Giants, catching only two passes for 20 yards. By comparison, Mike Evans was targeted 11 times, catching five passes for 67 yards and a touchdown.
For all the good things Winston has done this season, throwing the football to Jackson is not one of them.
The Bucs didn’t sign Jackson to a three-year, $30.5 million contract to be a decoy. On the season, Jackson has only nine catches for 143 yards and a touchdown.
“Rightfully so, DeSean should be frustrated because DeSean is an elite player in this league and we need to get him involved,’’ coach Dirk Koetter said. “We tried to get it to him. We talk about how Jameis and Cam [Brate] are clicking and Adam [Humphries] clicking and Jameis and Mike [Evans] are always clicking. We got O.J. [Howard] on track.
“We couldn’t get DeSean; we couldn’t get it to him other than a couple throws. We tried. We tried to go to him and we just flat-out missed him a couple times. We didn’t see him a couple times. You know, DeSean has the right to be frustrated and we need to get him the ball more. He’s a dynamic player.’’
Winston has struggled at times throwing the deep ball, particularly the deep post. Trailing 14-3 at Minnesota a week ago, Jackson won on that route and was open for a touchdown but Winston badly underthrew him and the pass was intercepted. Instead of a 14-10 game, the Vikings drove 92 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-3.
On Sunday, Winston overthrew an open Jackson on a deep ball that may have resulted in a touchdown. The rest of the afternoon, he kept putting the football behind him.
“I’m going to talk with DeSean,” Winston said. “That’s on me. That comes with my development of being able to throw the ball down the field and get him the football. I had three opportunities and I overshot him. I undershot him on one. So it’s a work in progress.
“It’s the third game. We’ve got to continue to get better. It just shows that every week we go in, it doesn’t matter if we’ve won or lost. We always have something to get better at. Me personally, that’s something I strive to get better at because when you have one of the best deep threat guys in the league, you’ve got to get him the ball. That’s going to help our offense go to where we need to go.”
Elsewhere on offense, Pro Bowl running back Doug Martin, suspended from last year’s finale and the first three games of 2017, was activated to the Bucs’ 53-man roster on Monday as Tampa Bay prepares for Thursday’s home game against the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots.
The team waived secondyear tight end/fullback Alan Cross to make room on the roster; Cross could be signed to the practice squad if he clears waivers today.
Martin hasn’t been around the team for four weeks — his suspension was extended a week by Hurricane Irma rescheduling the Bucs’ season opener to November. Jacquizz Rodgers has filled in as the starting running back, rushing for 83 yards in Sunday’s win against the Giants, but Martin’s return could be a boost for Tampa Bay’s offense.