Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 3 Reasons Jameis Winston is an MVP candidate
3. Plenty of primetime opportunities
The Buccaneers, although they may have a middle-of-the-road schedule in terms of strength, have some quality opponents on it. With quality opponents comes primetime television. Many of their games are on Fox, whether it be in their market or nationally.
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There are five games in particular that I would pay attention to. In the fourth game of the season they take on the Giants, who with the acquisition of Brandon Marshall, look to be a force to be reckoned with. The following week, they take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in a classic case of If you wanna be the best you have to beat the best. That game a Sunday night showdown at 8:25 p.m. ET will be a great measuring stick.
Week 8 features a matchup with the Carolina Panthers in their first divisional matchup of the season. Although they had a down year, the Panthers are returning much of the same cast from their Super Bowl run two years ago. On top of that, they now have a running back by the name of Christian McCaffery — who I hear is pretty good at football. The Bucs then have to travel to Lambeau in Week 12 and try to win against the Packers. That is never an easy task, especially on the Buccaneer defense, who now have to face newly-acquired tight end Martellus Bennett on top of Aaron Rodgers.
Lastly, Week 14 features a Monday Night Football matchup with the Atlanta Falcons. This may be an even bigger game depending on how things shake out in the standings. Even still, if standings are a non-factor, Tampa Bay will have to face Matt Ryan and Julio Jones at the least. This will be a tough game in what may have playoff implications.
All these games are opportunities for Jameis Winston to shine. The spotlight will be on him as he goes toe-to-toe with some of the National Football League’s best. If he can pass these tough tests and win these games, he will no doubt be in the conversation for MVP.