Jameis, Koetter And Weapons
January 1st, 2017
“I was throwing to who?”
No, America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, did not have a good game to start today.
In fact, he almost reminded Joe of Stewart McClown (but was so money on the game-winning drive). Bad Jameis showed up early. Awful completion percentage (yes, he had some drops) in the first half and Jameis was careless with the football.
In the big picture, however, it is stunning Jameis threw for 4,090 yards this season to become the first quarterback in the near-century long history of the NFL to throw for 4,000 yards in each of his first two seasons.
Let that sink in for a second, to those who nitpick every little move of Jameis.
Jameis, warts and all, also became the franchise leader in single-season passing yards today.
So let’s look at some of the main targets Jameis had to throw to this year due to a rash of injuries:
* Special teams ace Russell Shepard.
* Cecil Shorts.
* Freddie Martino and his Band of Renown.
* Allen Cross (not to be confused with Crosby, Stills and Nash).
* Josh Huff.
* Bernard Reedy, who not long ago provided a needed service for senior citizens transporting them to their doctor’s appointments.
No, Joe is not making any of this up. And had Dirk Koetter had known this would be what he had to work with to craft a passing offense due to so many injuries, he may not have accepted the head coaching gig.
Imagine what Jameis could do or could have done with a couple of extra reliable, competent NFL receivers playing opposite of Evans? Joe guesses right now Joe would be typing about the playoffs.
In his postgame presser, Koetter talked about playcalling. He said often, a playcaller must use his strengths and hide his weaknesses. And we wonder why the passing game slipped the past month of the season when teams did their best to take out Mike Evans. Defenses didn’t see concerned with anyone else, certainly not after Adam Humphries was concussed in San Diego.
Give Jameis two competent, NFL receivers with solid experience under their belts and the ability to stretch the field, and no telling what this offense and Jameis could do.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:08 pm
I think we also need to use the hurry up offense more liberally moving forward.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:12 pm
Speed please
January 1st, 2017 at 6:13 pm
I simply do not see the other receiver making that huge a difference in the end result to our season.
There are only so many balls to go around. ME had a record setting year are we going to cut down on his targets? Brate’s targets? Humps? We still have to get Sims into the mix. We need another receiver but it’s not the end of the world this year considering some of the games the backups like Shep and others turned in.
There was plenty of blame to go around for the seven losses. I think true attention to detail will clean up two of those losses and I think DK and his staff will make those detail oriented adjustments with the players and themselves in the off season. 11-5 and the playoffs and fighting for seeding should become the norm here.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:16 pm
Stpete u don’t get it more talent opens everything
January 1st, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Agree…need more talent. But Jameis has to work on being more accurate, too.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:22 pm
I don’t see how any of this reflects or depicts the truth about Jameis chronic high balls.
I like Jameis but you can’t not mention the inaccuracy as frequent as it occurs.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:22 pm
Let’s just keep making excuses for America’s QB. Let’s get tons of weapons and 5 pro bowlers on tbe O-line. The reality is that NO NFL qb has a perfect situation. I fear we have a bad QB and am waiting for him to prove me wrong. 28 TD’s and 24 total TO’s is not franchise QB play. Simple as that.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:23 pm
More talent makes defense have to think more, if you know that know player outside of Sims and Martin can run after the catch, defending the other receivers is not that difficult if you don’t let them get behind you
January 1st, 2017 at 6:25 pm
Youngbucs
We had plenty of open receivers this year. Because they aren’t household names doesn’t make them any less open. How many times did #3 overthrow them?
My point is simple. There is plenty of blame to go around. If you want to look for small areas of improvement…let’s hope DK’s play calling…#3’s decision making and accuracy all improve. Yeah another talented receiver will be nice but it’s not going to be the difference next year.
We either run the ball again next year like we did last year or it’s going to be another long wildly unpredictable season. Whether that means we need more beef in the OL or a stud RB like Cook I do not know. I just know we absolutely need to run the ball. Keeps our smallish defense off the field and fresh to fly around to the football. Helps our franchise QB with excellent play action opportunities.
Run the ball and we’re in the playoffs. Run it well and we may go deep into the playoffs.
And so you draft gurus tell me…is the kid from Texas another giant back capable of letting us go beast mode? I’d like to get really physical next year.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:26 pm
Agree, we need a more accurate Jameis but Jameis knows this as well, I expect him to come back better the same way he worked on his body in the offseason
January 1st, 2017 at 6:27 pm
I can image JW overthrowing, ALshon Jefferies, Kenny Britt, and anyone the Bucs draft. Unless there is an 11ft tall wide out coming to Tampa, weapons won’t matter.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:30 pm
Speed Kills. Get a burner and Evans and the other receivers will all benefit from from more quality plays.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:34 pm
One thing that puzzled me is that ME13 was blocking for Humphries numerous times on that overused wide receiver screen. There
was not enough plays in the game for our no 1 receiver.So jameis and Evans only tied Josh McCown and MG8 record of 12 touchdowns.( mostly McCown).
To me it seemed like Hump and Shep were the no 1 and 2 receiver.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:41 pm
Bucnut
The same way we keep making excuses for Jamies being a good quarterback is the same way you keep making excuses why he is not.
Which is why we are true fans and you are not.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:46 pm
^^^Bucnut2 thats the truth ! I hope winston goes and works out with Kurt Warner!
January 1st, 2017 at 6:55 pm
#draftJohnRoss
January 1st, 2017 at 7:03 pm
….and beef up the interior of the o-line. Center and LG can be improved, love Hawley’s attitude, but he’s essentially a poor mans Jeff Christy.
Jameis needs a pocket to step up into as much as he needs weapons.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:06 pm
I hope Licht and Co. take a good long look at Corey Davis from Western Michigan. I know there are a lot of people wanting a burner to go with Evans, but there isn’t really that much speed in this years receivers. Davis is a notch below the super fast, but he does everything else you need from a receiver, and DUDE PRODUCES every year. Check his numbers and tape. Plus from all accounts, he’s a good character guy. Second round, take BPA, whether it be a Center, Sam linebacker, CB, RB, FS. RT is maybe the biggest need at this point, but there don’t seem to be any natural RT’s until day 3 of the draft, unless you were to switch one of the LT’s over to RT, which always comes with mixed results.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:08 pm
Gee, so you’re telling me Winston started off slow… then when it mattered came through and lead his team to the game winning TD. Gee, it’s almost like reading his scouting report. Jameis is money – he plays his best when he’s given the chance to run more than a middle school offense and when it matters the most. Yeah he doesn’t win everything, but man how many times on those early bad Packers teams did Favre fail to come through – by memory it seems like quite a few times. Jameis is more Favre than anyone else I can remember, and with that comes the good and bad. The good is swagger, leadership, being there every week, making amazing plays when he gets hot, the bad is turnovers and every once in awhile blowing it when relying on his arm too much. I’m more than willing to live with that, in particular since Winston is the 2nd youngest QB starting in the NFL, only Goff is younger (Wentz and Dak are both older).
Think of that… one of the best starts in NFL history for a QB, and he did so in a 2nd year offense that had what, one non-UDFA catches balls for most of the season and a coach that went ultra-conservative.
It’s a pretty amazing start. Winston has to work on his feet in my opinion, once he gets those settled down a bit in the pocket his game will progress even more. Also the offensive playcalling has to get much much better, and Dirk needs to roll him out more and do more outside the pocket – Winston was leading for most of the season in terms of QB rating outside of the pocket I believe.
All of that and the kid is still only 22, has had zero off field issues, is a great leader. The future is very bright… so long as he doesn’t show-up down 50 pounds at training camp with a constantly itchy nose. But I think there’s zero chance of that happening, and heck even if it did even Favre had a huge pill problem, just it was pre-Twitter and Facebook so people minded their own business so no one cared so long as he won.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:11 pm
I’m so glad we have so many coaches on the board. I would never have known that every overthrow was due to a bad throw from Jameis. I’m amazed how all of our cast off receivers ran perfect routes…. every time.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:15 pm
Wow bucnut a bad qb, dude you better hope this guy falls apart because I for one will never let you live that comment down.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:21 pm
When my QB Throws for over 8000 yards and 50 TD’s in his first 2 seasons, I can live with some high throws.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:28 pm
We have the worst receiving core in the NFL. Jameis was inaccurate at times as is every QB. We were near the bottom of the league in rush yards per attempt and bottom of the league in RAC. Fix the OL to get a consistent run game. Please dear lord find a WR that can create explosives in the short passing game. Let’s judge Jameis then.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:28 pm
I was a Jameis sceptic in the beginning. Now I think he has the potential to be an excellent qb. But it won’t matter how much WR talent we amass if JW doesn’t learn how to move through his progressions to find the open receiver. Too many times he locks onto a receiver and forces the ball. I’m hoping he makes better strides this off-season than he did last off-season.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:30 pm
With a healthy capable Vjax, this team might of made the playoffs.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:32 pm
ndog …don’t know why you pay attention to that Jameis-troll.
I quit on that punk a month ago.
January 1st, 2017 at 7:37 pm
We thought he’d have VJax but he’s done. With VJax playing like VJax we would’ve made the playoffs. But hey looks like we need to draft a good WR
January 1st, 2017 at 8:02 pm
Some of you guys are IDIOTS!!!! Its obvious you know nothing about football. For all you uneducated IDIOTS, football is about timing and chemistry. Did any of you no it all qb gurus notice the difference in chemistry this year as compared to last year with jw and evans? How about the chemistry between brate and humphries with jameis? Did you notice how there were not many high throws to those two? Yes there were off throws to martino, huff, sheppard. Do you IDIOTS know why? Because it was musical chairs at the #2 wr spot. Do you IDIOTS remember how out of sync jameis and cecil shorts was at the beginning? As time went on you saw the chemistry building and then the injury to shorts happened. Look at someone like peyton manning. How many times did you see him getting rid of a ball as he gets hit before harrison was even coming out of his break because he knew exactly where harrison was going to be and harrison knew where manning would be throwing it. Its called timing and chemistry IDIOTS. You just dont develop that with practice squad and players off the street in a month. This is not john madden football IDIOTS.
January 1st, 2017 at 8:44 pm
@Bucnut2 … ” I fear we have a bad QB and am waiting for him to prove me wrong. 28 TD’s and 24 total TO’s is not franchise QB play. Simple as that.”
Maybe you’d prefer to go back to the 2-14 years Bucnut? Bucs just had their first winning season since 2010 (and this year’s schedule was much harder IMO). Think back to the very first game this season against Atlanta (Bucs won 31-24). Our whole team was healthy (last game that happened). Jameis went 23-for-32 for 281 yds and threw 4 TDs. Running game only produced 90 yds in that game, but if you remember, Jameis spread the ball around (7 different targets, good mixture of deep and short passing). Our Oline did a good job of protecting him that day by the way (no sacks allowed).
That’s what Jameis capable of with a full supporting cast. Yes he is a franchise QB. More importantly, he’s OUR franchise QB.
January 1st, 2017 at 9:02 pm
It doesn’t have to be one or the other….
Jameis needs another weapon (or 2), AND he needs to improve his accuracy (specifically high overthrows). It happened with Evans plenty of times too, not just to the backup WRs.
So hard for people to be objective around here.
January 1st, 2017 at 10:39 pm
Having better wrs will make Jameis’ job easier. A guy who can actually create seperation down the field will give jameis an easy non pressure throw. When he has to constantly try to fit the ball in tight windows he is bound to be off target from time to time.
Not to mention not having solid pass protection will hurt any QB. No QB has as much time as he would like, but i think we could do better for Jameis.
No Jameis is not perfect, what 2nd year QB ever was? But i think he has enough of the tools and the right mindset to be a great QB in the NFL. It will take the help of the 10 players around him too.
January 1st, 2017 at 10:57 pm
@Trubuc
Let all the IDIOTS only look at Jameis as the ills to to the passing game as if not having great protection or undrafted free agents all across the board to throw to do not hinder his progression or what he can already be. Let them continue to overlook the fact that no qb has gone an entire season without overthrowing their #1 receiver at points throughout a season or game eventhough the #1 receiver had 1300 yards and 12 tds without another legitimate threat lining up opposite of him. No let them continue to say people such as yourself are not being objective because you can see the forest despite the trees. You see, these are the IDIOTS who did not want Jameis in the first place and deep down want him to fail in order to be right instead of looking at the fact that you have the only qb in history to have 4,000 yards in his first two seasons despite his and the overall team’s shortcomings. Let them overlook that Jameis is in the top 10 in TD passes and top 10 or so in yards all at the tender age of 22. To them, Jameis is a bust and so be it. Fans such as yourself will continue to laugh at these IDIOTS while they waddle in their own misery. It is really comical at this point if you ask me.
January 1st, 2017 at 11:39 pm
All I have to say is, If I’m “missing” a pass to Evans. A 6’5″ ex-basketball playing wide receiver with a 37″ vertical at the combine, its gonna be up.
January 1st, 2017 at 11:56 pm
Joe reports – “Jameis threw for 4,090 yards this season to become the first quarterback in the near-century long history of the NFL to throw for 4,000 yards in each of his first two seasons.”
Bucnut comments – “I fear we have a bad QB and am waiting for him to prove me wrong.”
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No further comment is necessary
January 2nd, 2017 at 12:06 am
Everyone here realizes too that with no running game, Jameis threw for 4k yards with Mike Evans, a first round stud, then two Undrafted Free Agents as his next two best receivers. (Brate and Humphries) They are great surprises but they were undrafted for a reason. This is the NFL.
#HelpJameis
January 2nd, 2017 at 12:18 am
Bucnut2 Obviously 9 wins this year was because everybody but Winston made plays to win games. Winston did nothing in all 16 games,and a franchise QB he is not. Its funny but Winston’s first two years have produced 32 strait games no missed games, hes durable no. He’s passed for over 4000 yards for 2 strait years, if nothing else he’s consistent. His teams have won 6 games and 9 games, i see improvement no. His weapons are mike Evans and Cam Brate ,no running game and no speed at all offensive positions. Most telling is the bucs are last in the league in yac. Meaning Winston has to basically pass the team all the way down the field, pretty hard to do every game my friend. Ill take Winston over most QBs in this league because the talent is there for a 22 year old Franchise QB. That’s right i said it!!! PS your still a troll.
January 2nd, 2017 at 12:29 am
Some other facts that can’t be avoided.
Koetter’s play calling was terrible against the Raiders in over time.
Koetter almost blew the Panthers game with his play calling TWICE.
Koetter had poor clock management that cost us the Rams game.
Koetter’s offense could do nothing after the first qrt against Seattle. Thank the defense for that win.
Koetter’s offense struggles against THE SAINTS. THE SAINTS!!!!!?!?!?! Won a game with just 16 points.
The first real bad sign was the first game of the season against Atlanta. The Bucs were rolling and suddenly he took the light out of it. Soooo conservative.
I like Dirk, but he needs to let someone else call the plays. Mike Smith might not be here to save him next season.
January 2nd, 2017 at 6:06 am
chipbuc you said it all, i have been hard on jw3 about the pics but webster made a good point about timing with the new guys which would lead to pics