Winston may sit with sore shoulder

The Bucs are considering sitting quarterback Jameis Winston for Sunday’s game at New Orleans unless he is able to practice more this week, although no determination has been reached.

Winston has missed two practices in each of the past two weeks while trying to recover from soreness in his shoulder. He suffered an AC joint sprain in his right throwing shoulder in a 38-33 loss at Arizona Oct. 15.

While Winston had one of his best performances in the second half at Buffalo last week, finishing with 384 yards and three touchdowns, he struggled on a windy day in a 17-3 loss to Carolina Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.

Winston has made 39 consecutive starts and no decision would be made before Wednesday. He said he felt fine after Sunday’s game.

Winston completed 21-of-38 passes for 210 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble. The Bucs believe Winston’s timing and precision has suffered a bit with his lack of practice reps, especially against the Panthers.

In preparing for Buffalo and Carolina, he did not throw a football prior to Friday’s practice.

“As I mentioned earlier in the week, that’s not ideal,’’ Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said after the game. “That’s when you have to rely on all the work Jameis put in the off-season, puts in after practice. I still don’t think this will be an every-week all-season thing. That’s just my opinion. I’m not a medical guy. I don’t know what happened. If he was hurt [Sunday], I don’t know that yet.’’

Winston’s pain tolerance is pretty high, but like all players, the Bucs believe he could benefit from practicing more.

Bucs backup Ryan Fitzpatrick looked good in his only appearance this season. He completed 22 of 33 passes for 290 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss at Arizona.

Meanwhile, the Bucs’ four-game losing streak is making an impact on the team’s attendance, as Sunday’s home game against the Panthers was the thirdlowest in the 20 home games since Winston became the starting quarterback in 2015.

The announced attendance was 58,545, but the actual attendance, per the Tampa Sports Authority, was 48,744, the team’s lowest since last year’s home opener against the Rams, which drew an actual crowd of 44,711. The percentage of actual attendance vs. announced was 83.3 percent, down sharply from 94.6 percent from the last home game, a Thursday night game against the Patriots three weeks earlier. The dropoff in actual attendance between the two games was more than 20 percent.

In falling to 2-5, the Bucs are mired in their longest losing streak since the end of 2015 when head coach Lovie Smith was fired. Coming off the Patriots’ first game in Tampa in 20 years, a home game against a division opponent that plays in Tampa every year would understandably have a dropoff in attendance. Two years ago the Panthers drew an actual 48,068 in Tampa against the Bucs, slightly less than Sunday’s total.

Halfway through the home schedule, the Bucs rank the same as last year in average announced attendance — 28th out of 32 teams, averaging 60,894 per game, up slightly from last year, when they averaged 60,624. Tampa Bay is in the middle of a stretch of six road games in eight weeks.