NFL Free Agency 2020: Best landing spot for top 20 players

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been saying for a while they intend to retain Jameis Winston, with Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reporting in December the team planned to bring back the former No. 1 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner.

Jenna Laine of ESPN reported last week the Buccaneers have thought about the idea of a two-year deal for Winston, with the first being in the neighborhood of the franchise tag, $27 million, with a team option for year two.

It wouldn’t be ideal for Winston, who had a season like no one in NFL history on 2019 … for better and worse. But given his inconsistent play over his first five seasons and Tampa Bay’s 12-year (and counting) postseason drought, a prove-it type contract makes a certain amount of sense for Winston.

The Bucs were 9-7 in 2016, Winston’s second season, which is their only winning record since 2008. Tampa Bay was 7-9 in 2019 as Winston set all sorts of fun records.

For starters, Winston delivered seven pick-sixes last season, the most by a quarterback since the statistic has been tracked beginning in 1950. That broke the old record of six originally set by Rudy Bukich of the Chicago Bears in 1966 and tied by Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts in 2001.

Winston led the NFL with 5,109 passing yards last season, the eighth-most all-time and also had a league-high 626 attempts. He was second in the NFL with 33 touchdown passes, offset by the fact he threw an NFL-worst 30 interceptions.

That allowed Winston to pull off a feat of gunslinging that not even Brett Favre could pull off — becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to throw at least 30 touchdown passes and 30 interceptions … in the same season.

Winston was a Pro Bowler as a rookie in 2015, but has not been selected since. It appears Tampa Bay is willing to give him another chance to prove he’s their franchise guy, but it will be with a short leash.