Jameis > Mariota (By A Little)
January 10th, 2016
Better than the Duck.
There is no way these two will ever get away from it. Both America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, and brittle coach-killer Marcus Mariota are forever linked in football annals.
One has a national championship and but one loss on his college resumé, as well the title of “No. 1 overall pick” in the 2015 NFL draft. The other is 2-0 against the champ, but has no titles to show for his effort, nor has he pulled his NFL team up by the bootstraps and willed it to wins.
In some respects, Mariota is a young Stewart McClown, who puts up gaudy numbers and teases fans until they look at the scoreboard after the game.
One guy is charismatic, gregarious, brash and an old style NFL gunslinger. The other is timid almost to a fault and carries the banner of hope and change that so many stat geeks want the NFL to be.
And speaking of numbers, Thomas Bassinger of the Tampa Bay Times, who likes to traffic in numbers but presents them in a way even non-stat guys like Joe can benefit from them — decided to dive in the deep end of the analytics pool and see which rookie quarterback had a better season.
Bassinger, who like Joe is not fond of quarterback ratings, believes Jameis comes out on top, though barely.
The temptation is to pick them both, but the clickbaitey headline demands that I choose one. When you consider the injuries, the reliance on undrafted free agents, Pro Football Focus’ lowest-graded offensive tackle tandem, my pick, after one season, is … Jameis Winston.
Going forward, his confidence, drive and competitiveness are indisputable strengths. But to continue his upward trajectory, he’ll need to improve against the blitz. His 50.7 completion percentage against the blitz this season was the second-lowest (Sam Bradford, 50.6 percent).
Bassinger hits on several points in just these two paragraphs, but here’s the two that jump out at Joe:
One is the injuries. There is no question, no doubt, that when Vincent Jackson went down with a knee injury Jameis began to struggle, in part because of the inconsistent (Joe’s trying to be nice) catching ability of his receivers. Even Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter all but stated Jackson is the MVP of the Bucs’ offense.
The second element is throwing under pressure, specifically the blitz. This is something Jameis is just going to see more and more until or unless he improves in this area.
Trust Joe, if a guy typing for a living like Bassinger can see this, so too can defensive coordinators.
It is like a batter in baseball who cannot lay wood on a breaking pitch. You throw the guy nothing but junk until there’s proof he can hit one.
It’s something to keep an eye on next season. Until then, check out Bassinger’s thorough research.
January 10th, 2016 at 9:09 am
Too many over th
January 10th, 2016 at 9:42 am
Winston has more wins and he has played all games. Case closed.
January 10th, 2016 at 9:44 am
Jameis is by far WAYYYYYYY better than mariota. Jamie’s study’s, throws inside the pocket, and has emotional leadership. Any who thinks mariota is better than Jamie’s or even close to jameis is an idiot and does not know how to judge quarterbacks appropriately.
January 10th, 2016 at 9:59 am
as a bucs FAN Winston is our qb but … M.M. will be a better qb with a good oc coach. More accurate ,better athlete, faster feet ,smarter football iq….but doesn’t matter now.
January 10th, 2016 at 9:59 am
Yeah, Jameis is waaaaay better . Lol, did you watch the last 4 games? And saying mm is a coach killer? I guess the manning brothers are too
January 10th, 2016 at 9:59 am
i think there might be some bias here…lol
January 10th, 2016 at 10:22 am
Joe, the coach killer remark about Mariotta was somewhat funny until Lovie was fired. Now both QB’s are basically head coach less. Though I guess the brittle comment still applies and you’ll beat that drum for as long as possible I’m guessing.
January 10th, 2016 at 10:25 am
Ben, are you a moron??? How the hell can you even say that Mariota has a higher a football iq than Winston… where have you been this past season
January 10th, 2016 at 10:33 am
lets just see if Winston can get thru the next six months without any issues, isn’t that the real reason there was concern on taking him. Prove that to me and Ill believe we have a franchise QB
January 10th, 2016 at 10:51 am
Come on Joe, BOTH these guys are special players and I’m glad we got one of them. I think we’re looking at two Pro-Bowl caliber QB’s for the next decade or more. This could be the next Manning v. Brady rivalry!
January 10th, 2016 at 10:57 am
Mariota won the Rose Bowl too, Joe. So he has a bowl game victory.
January 10th, 2016 at 11:04 am
How many games did Mariota miss due to injury? That will be one of the biggest differences in their careers. Jameis has proven to be pretty durable and as long as we keep improving our offensive line, Winston will have great success.
January 10th, 2016 at 11:07 am
Agree with Jeagan and I know why.
I’m thrilled to have JW. I do not need to have Mariota be a bum to validate the Bucs (and Joe!) choice to be the #1 choice.
JW is doing everything we’ve asked of him and if he continues his spotless off field behavior during this off season I think it’s clear that Joe and the Bucs have made the right choice for us.
Mariota’s success will never diminish JW’s success. And in terms of just sheer publicity the better Mariota is the better it is for #3. In terms of public interest if Mariota is a brittle as Joe suggests and kills enough coaches careers he’ll disappear. That will NOT be good for JW. Sports fan love rivalries and personal rivalries are the best.
The longer there is even a question about which of these QB’s are better that will simply intensify interest in BOTH QB’s and their teams. Not that JW needs any more interest but as the man once said…”There is no bad publicity any publicity is good.” See how far Trump has come with that sliver of knowledge.
January 10th, 2016 at 11:25 am
JW is good but has a lot of flaws. HE was very poor in the last four games. HE ran up stats in the second half of games in mop up time. If he is such a winner, how come he didn’t win 4 very winnable games. HE needs to get rid of ball quicker, read coverages and blitz’s better and needs to work on throwing the deep ball.
January 10th, 2016 at 11:27 am
@Bonzai Mariota was not playing against Jameis and Jameis has a National Championship Trophy
January 10th, 2016 at 11:38 am
Ben, you dont have one valid point, Marriota can run faster than Jameis but Jameis is the better athlete, MM doesn’t know how to use his speed in the NFL, Jameis was a more effective runner. And saying Marriota has a higher FB IQ is just tolling. The Titans ran simple 1-2 read offense, look at Delianie walker, if not, look here.
January 10th, 2016 at 12:20 pm
I’m just happy the Bucs didn’t take Mariota 1st overall. Mariota is the calm, Winston is the storm.
January 10th, 2016 at 12:37 pm
Told ya…..
January 10th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
Bucnut2 couldn’t troll harder if he wanted to. Your awful opinion is unwanted here, and I’m guessing everywhere else, do us all a favor please and disappear like Lovie…
January 10th, 2016 at 1:40 pm
Yeah bucnut is a jameis hater. Jameis > Mariota
January 10th, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Jamies is also a coach killer now… At least he’s not brittle
January 10th, 2016 at 2:00 pm
only because you’re in Tampa. They don’t think so in Tennessee.
January 10th, 2016 at 2:53 pm
To me this is good news…I was at JWs first college game in Pittsburgh vs. the Panthers, and have followed him probably more closely than anyone I would argue. Go back and look at the numbers vs. the blitz at FSU, they were unbelievable. Sure his first season seeing it it shook him a little, but he still had a very good year. Dude is a quick learner, and my opinion is he picks these NFL tricks up quick and his upside is crazy high!!
GO BUCS!!
January 10th, 2016 at 2:56 pm
ThIs is more biased than fox news. Absolutely stupid.
January 10th, 2016 at 3:31 pm
@joe. They are both coach killers. Yes Jamies was better this season, but indeed he is also a coach killer. You need to update Jamies name Joe.
January 10th, 2016 at 5:03 pm
@ st.pete
I guess manning needed leaf for his continued publicity. Lol. Winston needing mariota for publicity sake has to be one of the biggest reaches ever on jbf. But again, you were one of the bigger mariota supporters before the draft so….
January 10th, 2016 at 5:05 pm
I’m glad we have Jaboo, and yes, Mariota showed some brittleness, but make no mistake, he’s a star. Just look at Mecklenberg’s numbers after MM went down. Embarrassing.
January 10th, 2016 at 5:56 pm
I’ve been a Jameis fan for several years, but I must admit, Mariota has really impressed me. Mariota is the real deal, with that very quick release and (usually) great accuracy. JW is a winner first, a football player second, a QB third.
There is no reason to hate one just because you like the other, except when we play one another, maybe.
January 10th, 2016 at 6:09 pm
Tiny Tim
I was hardly one of the biggest Mariota supporters before the draft. I was certainly for doing the due diligence behind the off field scares. As soon as we drafted him as a Buc I’ve been nothing but supportive of him.
But perhaps since my posts generally run too long you sped read past his operative phrase…Not that JW needs any more interest
As for Peyton…no Leaf certainly didn’t provide any rivalry but I think Brady did…the problem was Peyton couldn’t keep up with Brady.
January 10th, 2016 at 7:00 pm
@ st pete
U were in the mariota camp before the draft period. Whether or not you “supported” winston after the draft does not change the fact you preferred mariota. And who is to say that cam or russell wilson or luck can’t be winston’s “rival”. I find it hillarious you feel winston needs mariota for that. Last i checked, brady and manning were not in the same draft as manning and leaf was. But hey, i will let you continue to reach and try to sell buc fans why mariota still should be relevant to us. Hillarious.
January 10th, 2016 at 9:17 pm
I live in Tampa, so I don’t give rat’s arse about that smelly Hawaiian. Worst state in the union. He can kiss my bright red rosie on main street.
January 11th, 2016 at 4:01 am
I love Mariota, I watched both Buccaneer games and Tennessee games. The only thing that hurt Mariota this year is his head coach’s offensive philosophy didn’t match Mariota’s talents – so he was fired before the end of the season. If Chip Kelly or Greg Roman ended up in Tennessee…Katy bar the friggin’ door. THAT offense will be as fun to watch as Seattle’s…