Jameis Winston was the epitome of an up-and-down quarterback in 2019. On the up side, he led the NFL with 5,109 passing yards, and his 33 touchdown passes ranked second only to Lamar Jackson. On the down side, however, Winston had a league-high 33 interceptions.
For context, only two other quarterbacks – Baker Mayfield (21) and Philip Rivers (20) – had more than 16.
So, that begs the question: how can Winston become a consistent star without imploding?
“That’s all on him,” Bucs free agent linebacker Shaquil Barrett said on Tiki & Tierney. “I just think he always wants to make the big play. He don’t want to live to play the next down. He wants that play to be the game-changing play. Sometimes receivers run the wrong routes. I did hear that on the sideline. But he’s just got to calm down and know that we can play another play. It’s 2nd-and-10; we can pick it up on 3rd-and-10. He’s got weapons, and he’s a good quarterback. He can get it done.”
Winston, the No. 1 overall pick in 2015, has never reached the postseason. In fact, the Bucs haven’t made the playoffs since 2007, though their seven wins this season were their second-most since 2012.
But where are the Bucs right now? Is this a team that’s close to contending for a playoff spot?
“I think we do have all the pieces,” Barrett said. “We just need to find a way to bring most of us back. We did grow a lot as a team, as a defense. Me, that was my first time as a full-time starter. We was young. We wasn’t experienced in communicating in game-time situations when [other teams were in no-huddle]. We still got to line up and know your communications and do all this stuff – not just line up. We just had to work on [those] types of communications and knowing our alignments and knowing where our help is at. We got better at that throughout the year. That’s why I feel as though if we get mostly everybody back, we could be scary – and if Jameis takes care of his part, we could be super scary.”