Jameis Winston done at QB?
Columnist George Diaz thinks so since the Bucs have new starter.
Jameis Winston has put the Tampa Bay Bucs in an untenable position: Start a 36-year-old journeyman at quarterback the rest of the season.
The Bucs have formally benched Winston and named veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick as their starting QB for the Week 9 matchup against the Carolina Panthers this Sunday.
“It’s just for right now,” Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said during his Monday press conference. “Right now, the most important thing we’ve got is this week. We’ll just have to see how things go. I don’t like switching quarterbacks. That’s not in my makeup to switch quarterbacks, but we just feel like we’ve got to make the switch at this time.”
Ryan Fitzpatrick, this mess isn’t on you. #Fitzmagic is back in play, and just in time for Halloween! Get out those fake bears and dangling jewelry, kids. We have a winner.
That is not what we are saying about the Bucs, however. They are essentially giving up on their No. 1 pick in 2015, and waving the white flag.
They can no longer pin the hopes of this franchise on an under-achieving, erratic 24-year-old who is imploding his career and potential right before their eyes.
Color me surprised in some ways, but not shocked.
But let’s not bury the lead either before we get any deeper into the story.
Winston is toast. Done. See You.
The Bucs would have not have made this move had they not seen the same thing. His contract calls for a guaranteed base salary of nearly $21 million next season, but the Bucs also have the option of cutting ties without any cost. The only way that money is guaranteed is if he’s hurt and unable to pass a physical in the spring of 2019.
So shutting him down permanently is the likely scenario. But that game plan is a complicated mess with significant ripples. Koetter and general manager Jason Licht are officially on the clock as well, and their time with the Bucs may have a short expiration date.
Licht was head of the Bucs braintrust that made Winston the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
Koetter is the former offensive coordinator and now head coach entrusted to manage and groom Winston into a star quarterback.
All three have now officially failed miserably.
Fitzpatrick is a shortterm answer but not the future. Jameis is the future with no answers.
“Yeah, we don’t need to talk about it,’’ Koetter said Sunday. “I mean today is not the day I need to decide that, right?
“I don’t have any problem making decisions and I’ll make it when the time is right. But now is not the right time to make it.’’
But he knew. We all did, that the smart money was on Fitzpatrick, who stepped into the huddle after Jameis wet the bed in Cincinnati on Sunday, leaving the unsightly mess of four interceptions, forcing Koetter to intervene.
Fitzpatrick rallied the
It’s not working. Winston has played 48 games in his NFL career and has thrown 50 interceptions and fumbled 21 times.
Bucs to 18 unanswered points before the Bengals won the game on a lastsecond field goal.
Licht would like to prove that he was right when he made Jameis the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft despite the personal dossier that put Jameis on shaky ground as a prospect coming out of FSU.
It’s not working. Winston has played 48 games in his NFL career and has thrown 50 interceptions and fumbled 21 times. That’s 71 gifted possessions to the other team. In layman’s terms, that stinks.
Winston has already thrown 10 interceptions in four games (only three starts) this season. His passer rating is an abysmal (and career-low) 74.7.
“I mean last in the league in turnover ratio at minus 13,” Koetter said Monday. “We’re not getting any, but that’s one thing — minus three a week ago and minus four in this game. It just can’t happen.”
Things are so toxic on the field that DeSean Jackson has reportedly asked to be traded. There is no chemistry there, unless you include the word “volatile.”
Speaking of, Winston missed the first three games of the season serving a three-game suspension imposed by the NFL for allegedly assaulting a female Arizona Uber driver.
Winston is a flawed quarterback, both on and off the field.
Benching him is the right thing to do under impossible circumstances. It tells everyone that the Bucs have seen enough of a sample-size in four years.
Jameis Winston is not their franchise QB, nor their savior.
Strap on your seat belt kids. The ride is about to get bumpy.