Rookie Of The Year?
November 24th, 2015
Top NFL rookie?
The sad thing is, there are but six games left in the NFL regular season. (Notice Joe had to qualify that statement with “regular season?”) Before you know it, the playoffs are here.
Now whether the Bucs make the playoffs or not remains to be seen. Shoot, the Bucs just won a consecutive game for the first time in two years, so Joe understands how skepticism of a playoff run, even though the Bucs are one game out of a wild card berth as folks are thawing out their turkeys for Thanksgiving.
The biggest difference with the Bucs from last year? Well, aside from the record and the offensive line, the difference is glaring: the quarterback.
The Bucs went from a career loser in Stewart McClown (22-58) to a guy who, if Joe recalls correctly, lost five games in his life when the Bucs drafted him, that would be America’s Quarterback, Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston.
By a combination of talent and his charismatic cult of personality, Jameis has all but willed the Bucs into playoff contention, which two months ago was a preposterous concept.
After shredding the Eagles Sunday for an NFL rookie record five touchdown pass and no turnovers, Conor Orr of NFL.com believes Jameis is the leading candidate to be the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
He threw touchdown passes in the red zone to receivers that weren’t effectively jammed or contested at the line, and each of his scores were to a different receiver. Watching Winston play is fun. What people say about his confidence is true and it’s probably the reason he’ll edge out his competition for Offensive Rookie of the Year. But Winston also has a very good team being built around him, and all of the credit in the world goes to general manager Jason Licht. If that offensive line can come along as planned — the team rolled without the services of second-round pick Ali Marpet on Sunday — this could be the start of something wonderful in Tampa.
While Joe wholeheartedly agrees with what Orr wrote about Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Licht, still, this turnaround is right now all about Jameis.
Notice how Orr said watching Jameis is “fun?” When is the last time a Bucs fan actually enjoyed watching a Bucs quarterback, seriously? Often the offense was such a trainwreck that exposing Bucs quarterback play to children would land a parent in hot water with DCF.
Folks, Jameis has given Bucs fans both entertainment real hope. Let there be winning!
November 24th, 2015 at 5:47 am
Lots of work on mechanics this offseason..
November 24th, 2015 at 6:13 am
R.O, maybe he is like Brett Favre, un-Orthodox mechanics that work for him.
November 24th, 2015 at 6:45 am
Unless he melts down in the back half of the season (unlikely) then I think he’s a lock for OROY.
November 24th, 2015 at 7:04 am
“…Notice how Orr said watching Jameis is “fun?” When is the last time a Bucs fan actually enjoyed watching a Bucs quarterback…” Never?
IMO, there are not many QBs in the NFL that are “fun” to watch. In the NFL, it is usually the “team” that can be fun to watch. Like the old Bucs, or the old Buddy Ryan Bears D, used to be fun to watch – you would watch them to see them ball hawk, or sack the QB, etc.
QBs are the same way. Like Payton used to be, or Brady (although its hard to like the Pats). You like to watch them because there will be several moments where you go, “WOW” how did he do that?! Jameis is becoming exactly that. Like Orr pointed out, ALL 5 of Winston’s TD’s were tightly contested. Everyone of them I said WOW, how did he do that?! Granted, lets not take away from the receivers part in it (Sims especially). But, Bucs fans, quit being so critical and ENJOY THAT JAMEIS IS A BUC!!!
November 24th, 2015 at 7:15 am
Hard to disagree with this article…. BUT I AM GOING TO DO IT….
Well actually I want to add supporting evidence to why I believe we are contenders….
The D is doing exactly what it did last year… If the continue the trend of playing better as the year goes on…. Hard to doubt that we can’t be right in the thick of it….
Jamies gives us a real opportunity to cash in on a team that is peaking Defensively in the second half like they did last year….
All the credit should be heaped on Lovie Smith if that trend continues and we get in the playoffs!!!!
November 24th, 2015 at 7:15 am
Can’t wait to see what he can do if he ever gets ASJ back to join VJax, Evans, Martin and Sims.
November 24th, 2015 at 7:29 am
Hopefully Bruce Carter can step in and earn his paycheck while Kwon is out. I actually agree that if Winston is turning the corner and the game is starting to slow down for him in the red zone they might have a legit shot. The defense has been getting turnovers and giving the offense the ball with good field position quite often this season but without weapons being healthy they were settling for too many field goals instead of TD’s. If they can start consistently turning some of those field goals into TD’s they might be hard to handle going forward.
November 24th, 2015 at 7:32 am
Articles like this one humor me.
Joe gives our QB all the credit for our 5-5 record to date … “Jameis has all but willed the Bucs into playoff contention.”
Conor Orr gives our GM all the credit … “all of the credit in the world goes to general manager Jason Licht.”
Neither even mentions Lovie and his coaching staff who might deserve maybe a crumb of credit in this process. Can only wonder if Jameis would even be in the Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation without Dirk Koetter’s coaching (think back to last year and Marcus Arroyo for a second). Or how we’d be doing record-wise if the defense hadn’t improved with Lovie Smith’s and Leslie Frazier’s coaching (think back to the start of this year).
And lots of players contributing far more than anyone expected them to (Doug Martin’s turnaround, our OLine’s performance to date, and Kwon Alexander’s MLB play for instance?).
Jameis is evolving into a fantastic QB and excellent team leader. Jason Licht has made some great pick-ups to date (and a few not-so-good ones?). But winning is a full team effort as we all know, and it takes everyone contributing to win in the NFL these days. Lovie gets that it’s obvious … as did Tony Dungy.
November 24th, 2015 at 7:47 am
There are many reasons for the progress this team is making and I am going to mention the OL and Dirk Koetter’s blocking schemes being implemented by Warhop who was being brutalized by many last season. The Bucs had no OC last year and getting an established OC has had a ripple effect on the entire offense.
Another point: Koetter’s impact on Jameis can be put in perspective by this, How is Matty Ice doing without him?
November 24th, 2015 at 8:08 am
You mean Matty Melt????
We need them to beat a couple teams for us down the stretch but yeah…. When I look at that team I see the BUCS being better coached for sure!!!!
November 24th, 2015 at 9:37 am
The award is gonna come down to Jameis or Mariota. Only chance a RB or WR has of winning it is if they just go off with a 1300 or 1500 yard year.
November 24th, 2015 at 11:19 am
Gonna have to fight Todd Gurley for it, it seems.
November 24th, 2015 at 11:58 am
If the Bucs go 8 and 8 or better, and Winston stays healthy, Winston wins the ROY. Unlikely Tenn can win enough at this point for Mariota to get it.
November 24th, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Winston is currently the 12th overall QB in fantasy points in my league with a good 40+ point separation from Mariota.
He’s also 5-5 vs 2-8. The Titans have as much talent as Bucs imo. Harry Douglas / Dorial Green Beckam / Kendall Wright / Delanie Walker / multiple 1st round o-lineman and solid pedigree guys. Defensively they’ve played well also.
Mariotas fantasy #s are also inflated by 2 huge games vs 1 huge game for Winston. He’s been much more consistent in moving the team up and down the field efficiently
November 24th, 2015 at 1:25 pm
As the #1 overall pick going to a team that expected him to start from Day 1, Jameis had the inside track on the Rookie of the Year award. It would be an upset if he didn’t win it.
With that said, I think everyone here is impressed with the growth of Jameis this season. He’s getting exponentially better week after week. Barring a meltdown, he’s the ROY. If he keeps improving at this rate, he may be in the race for MVP.
November 24th, 2015 at 2:01 pm
It comes down to these last six games. Winston is on a roll and lets not forget that Pro Football Outsiders had the Eagles as the #2 rated defense in the NFL before we defeated them. That is quite an accomplishment considering how they were dominated in the passing game. Lets not forget that if Winston can average 2 TD a game from here on in, he will break the rookie record for passing TD.
November 24th, 2015 at 7:20 pm
The only thing one could worry about this year is that rookie wall we all hate. But the thing about Winston is his will to win. This rookie wall stuff probably won’t even phase him because he is so determined and he is a winner. No one should be worried about him these last 6 games. Jameis is gonna lead us to the playoffs. ITS A SUNNY DAY IN TAMPA BAY, BUCS FANS!!
November 24th, 2015 at 9:55 pm
[Dan: Please stick to one of your two usernames. Joe’s cracking down of the multiple personality commenters. Thanks. — Joe.]
“By a combination of talent and his charismatic cult of personality, Jameis has…”
I think you may have confused “cult of personality” with “charismatic authority” Two completly different concepts, though the song still rocks! Go Bucs!
November 24th, 2015 at 10:08 pm
McBuc Says:
November 24th, 2015 at 6:13 am
R.O, maybe he is like Brett Favre, un-Orthodox mechanics that work for him.
Maybe R.O. has no idea what the hell he speaks of?
November 25th, 2015 at 3:07 am
I don’t see oroy when I look at #3 I see the future league MVP.