Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Success hinges on Jameis Winston

Jameis Winston had a spectacular rookie season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2015, and it is my belief that he has the abilities and football instincts necessary to eventually lead a very competitive football team.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Jameis Winston out of Florida State with the first overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, a decision that appears to have supplied them with a viable starting quarterback for the future. The 22-year-old quarterback had a strong inaugural season for the Buccaneers, as he set rookie team records for passing yards and touchdown passes.

Winston completed 58.3-percent of his passes in 2015, and did so while throwing for 22 touchdowns and 15 interceptions for 4,042 yards. His completion percentage could use some work, but, overall, the Florida State product had a very fine rookie season, and that’s before you take his impressive rushing numbers into account – he carried the ball 53 times for 210 yards and six touchdowns on the year.

The touchdown totals, both passing and rushing, that Winston posted throughout his rookie campaign were truly impressive. His strong statistical output undoubtedly took the Buccaneers offense to another level last season, as the team made huge strides in the yardage and points categories.

The Buccaneers scored 65 more points in 2015 than they did in 2014, as they climbed from 29th to 20th overall in league wide scoring. And while their improved scoring output is promising, it’s the amount of yardage that they accumulated under Winston that should have coaches and fans excited about the team’s future.

Tampa Bay’s offense, while only improving marginally in points scored, made a gigantic leap in terms of offensive yardage gained. The Buccaneers ranked fifth in yards gained in 2015, the highest that they’ve ever been ranked at the conclusion of a season.

To put things in perspective, Tampa Bay, in terms of yardage produced, fielded the league’s third worst offense in 2014, finishing 30th overall in offensive yards gained with 4,672 yards to their credit. A year later, when they finished fifth overall in the category, they accumulated 6,011 offensive yards (4,252 of which Winston was personally responsible for producing in one way or another) – that’s an additional 1,339 yards gained by the offense.

The disparity between points scored and yards gained tells me one thing about Winston and the Buccaneers: they’re still figuring things out. With the amount of yards that they garnered last season, their scoring output should have been much greater. This means that they are failing to finish drives, and are settling for field goals more often than they should.

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Once Winston takes full advantage of his potential and great football smarts, I truly believe that the Buccaneers will reign dominant over the NFL. Quarterback is the most important position in all of football, and if you’re going to succeed, you need a player capable of making all of the necessary reads and throws – aspects of Winston’s game that will only improve with time.

Obviously the team will need to surround their franchise quarterback with quality players, but, make no mistake about it, the success of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rides and dies with Jameis Winston from here on out.

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