Defending Jameis
December 9th, 2017
Dirk Koetter asks Bucs fans for perspective with Jameis.
There is no doubt in Joe’s eyes that a good number of Bucs fans have turned on America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston.
They are tired of his inconsistency, tired of his garish fumbles, tired of his sideline antics with teammates.
Joe is convinced many of these Bucs fans would be giddy to have Mike Glennon back (but not so giddy for his awful play).
Last night while appearing on “Late Hits,” co-hosted by Howard Balzer and Gil Brandt, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Koetter was asked what he wants to see from Jameis in the final four weeks of the season.
Koetter apparently senses the tide turning on Jameis among fans and he issued a plea for Bucs fans to put things in perspective and be reasonable adults.
“I have been asked that type of question a lot about Jameis this week and ironically enough, we are playing the Lions this week,” Koetter said. “I think Matthew Stafford is a good guy for the Bucs fans to realize that there is another guy who was drafted as a first overall pick like Jameis was. First couple of years in Detroit maybe weren’t his greatest years. But here he is, Matthew Stafford is beginning his [ninth] year in the league now. And he is playing at an extremely high level.
“I mean, just look at the top quarterbacks in our league. And a bunch of them are over 30-years old and we have to remember that Jameis Winston is 23-years old and in his third season. And, when guys are picked first pick in the draft, usually, if there wasn’t a trade made, they are usually going to a team that wasn’t the most talented of teams otherwise they wouldn’t have had the first pick in the draft. So there is a buildup curve for these quarterbacks and it is just – Jameis seems like he has been around forever based on his career at Florida State, but the guy is just 23.
“So what does he need this last month of the season? After Detroit we have three division games left. Those are the teams you are going to be playing twice a year every year and Jameis is going to be playing those guys for a long time to come. So you want to establish yourself in the division, continue to get experience and try to get some wins under his belt.”
Oddly enough, entering this season, Jameis had a winning record in the NFC South, 7-5 in his first two seasons, including a 3-1 record over the Dixie Chicks.
No, Jameis hasn’t had a season, largely due to his bum shoulder (more from Koetter on that later). Yes, he still make nightmarish mental mistakes based largely on both hubris and pressure. Still, Jameis in two of his last four starts gave the Bucs a lead in the fourth quarter only to watch from the sidelines as the Bucs defense ralphed all over its shoes and gagged up the lead.
Does Jameis need to improve? Hell, yeah, so do about 25 other starting quarterbacks in the NFL. Should Jameis be cut or traded? Put down the bottle!
And judging by Koetter’s own words, so long as he is coaching the Bucs, America can stand proud and the Jameis haters can sit in the corner by themselves and eat L’s!
December 9th, 2017 at 12:36 am
That’s real joe
December 9th, 2017 at 12:41 am
I’m eating Ws and Ls with Jw.
December 9th, 2017 at 12:41 am
Gruden would love coaching Peyton Manning.
December 9th, 2017 at 5:41 am
Note to Dirk … Buccaneers (ownership AND fans) made a HUGE investment in Jameis when we drafted him. We not only invested a #1 pick in drafting Jameis, but we also invested the direction we intended for this club to go in the future … we intended to go from being a defensively-focused franchise to an offensive powerhouse. Jason Licht and you Dirk were hired to be the architects of that high-powered offense, with Jameis being the engineer of that train out on the field.
Bucs’ fans are concerned about Jameis’ progress Dirk. We can count; we know that he’s ONLY 23-years old. We’ve had almost 3 years now watching the Good Jameis wow us, while the Bad Jameis leaves us shaking our heads and wondering what in heaven’s name we just saw. We see a nice young man with great potential … under your tutelage … who at this point may or may not represent the future leadership & direction of this franchise. That’s up to HIM much more than it’s up to us.
Bucs’ fans don’t need any lectures on being patient. We’re Webster’s definition of patient. We’re also Webster’s definition of crazy … check out our W-L record over the past 40-plus years if you need verification of that, and yet we still keep coming back year after year. We didn’t expect this franchise to be ‘fixed’ overnight. But if you and Jason and Smitty and the rest of this coaching staff … and Jameis … expect our loyalty (and jobs in the future), we need to see better progress than we’re seeing right now.
December 9th, 2017 at 5:53 am
both Koetter and Jameis live in ga ga land.
Where is that pro ready q.b. that was suppose to be so good coming out,at?
Out behind the barn sucking on his thumb pretending he is Americas Quarterback?
23 year old kid.
Ha,there are 23 year old kids defending this country right now that are not sticking fingers in their mouths acting like a goof.
All this sounds good, but he has made a u turn and headed back the other way now.
Give him some competition to wake his a$$ up and snap him out of his funk or send him packing as this isn’t the baby sitting part of the NFL
December 9th, 2017 at 6:09 am
He is a decent quarterback, but what makes me angry with him are his stupid plays, maybe he wouldn’t have seemed so bad with a Dungy defense because they always helped our offense this defense usually hurts the offense
December 9th, 2017 at 6:44 am
The youth thing doesn’t mean anything. He’s has had 41 starts, 41!. He should be playing like a 27 0r 28 year. Let’s not forget that Dirk HAS to say what he is saying. He and Licht have their futures invested in Winston. They can’t and won’t admit they made a mistake. IMO Winston’s an average QB. For some perspective(outside of the Tampa tainted bias on this site) here’s list of QB’s I would rather have for the Bucs:
Brady
Rogers
Manning
Roethlisberger
Palmer
Rivers
Wentz
Goff
Wilson
Keenum
Prescott
Cousins
Watson
Dalton
Brees
Ryan
Newton
Flacco
Luck-when not injured
That’s 19 ahead of JW. How can we consider him anything more than average?
December 9th, 2017 at 6:53 am
We will need to get Klueless and the frat boys qb coaches out of town before he destroys jameis skills
Clev browns did the right thing and picked up a proven winner in gm john dorsey
I think dave gettleman is going to NY
We need proven experienced winners with a strong track record
Son of Kobe Faker
December 9th, 2017 at 7:01 am
Brady///Rodgers///Nanning///Brees///Roethlisberger///Rivers////Palmer////Dalton////Ryan///Luck!! On this team all would be on IR by now!! NO O-LINE and NO BYE-WEEK!! CONTINUE TO BUILD A WALL!!
December 9th, 2017 at 7:48 am
I’ll give Koetter credit for giving a thoughtful defense of Jameis. Jameis hasn’t been consistant enough. The major reason I see is that he doesn’t always play
with a calm confidence. The best way to beat a good team is to get ahead and stay there,not getting a lead with time left in the fourth quarter. Jameis has not done that consistantly . Slow starts affect the morale of both the fans and team.
Jameis has plenty of time to fix this , but he needs better QB coaching,both on the team and in the offseason.
December 9th, 2017 at 8:48 am
Mr.Winston has all theses weapons and what has he done? average or below .Jamies does not scare any nfl team and he was top pick in draft .. Joe,pls stop with the man crush!
December 9th, 2017 at 8:51 am
@Bob in Valrico … “Jameis has plenty of time to fix this , but he needs better QB coaching, both on the team and in the offseason.” Concur totally Bob that Jameis needs better coaching, but just not sure about there being ‘plenty of time to fix this’. I see him regressing in several key areas (leadership being the most important) and not improving in several others (accuracy being the most important). If that isn’t turned around (at least into a positive direction) by the end of next season, I have to wonder if the Glazers will keep him into the 5th year. Heck, they may even draft a QB in the mid-rounds this year as insurance, who knows.
December 9th, 2017 at 9:05 am
D R
you can be guaranteed of one thing whatever decisions the Glazer idiots make will be the WRONG one. They have not made a good decision since daddy kicked out the one dimensional failure dungy and hired gruden. Bringing Gruden back will be glazers next HUGE mistake that sets team back another 5 years. No hope when ownership is not capable of making good decisions and is not concerned with winning.
December 9th, 2017 at 9:05 am
DDL…..draft Drew Lock..if he declares
December 9th, 2017 at 9:27 am
Bucnut2, how can we consider you anything but an idiot? Do you actually think your opinion of Jameis is relevant to anyone? You and Altered Ego and Ben Dover should compare notes. The 3 dimwits. You’re hilarious, though. Not intellegent, but hilarious none the less.
December 9th, 2017 at 9:36 am
Lol….common sense guys….
What did jason licht and Klueless ever win or do?
Maybe that is the reason we are not successful?
Its not that hard
1+1=2
Glazers need to bring successful winning gms and coaches to….
Be successful and win?
Yes….not that hard
Son of Kobe Faker
December 9th, 2017 at 10:00 am
The Bucs were a slightly above average Offense when they won their 1st superbowl. Brad Johnson got the job done with many bumps along the way. On the other hand, Our Defense then was stellar. Teams actually..Feared us. They knew to waer extra padding because we were..the hardest hitting NFl team alive who made plays everywhere. Having watched that last GreenBay drive against usonly tells me, Anybody can score,,at will on us. Give me a Great Defense over a Jameis Winston lead offense anyday And I will slaughter you!!
December 9th, 2017 at 10:10 am
Koetter knows that as long as he is the head coach here that he is stuck with Jameis no matter how good or bad he is. In his statements you can tell that he knows that Jameis isn’t progressing or playing well. A third year starter in the league should not be making bonehead mistakes. Jameis looks good on paper, but stats are for losers
December 9th, 2017 at 10:43 am
Agreed, Joe. We need a good draft, keep Jameis and the coaches. They should be closer to a playoff team next year. You guys are crazy if you thought this year was a playoff year for the BUCS.
December 9th, 2017 at 10:49 am
I’m not sure I’m in the group here who wants to give #3 a pass and blame a lot of his difficulties on bad coaching. You can’t polish a turrd. I’m not saying #3 is anywhere near a turrd…but let’s face it….he is one of two things…either really dimwitted and slow…or incredibly hard headed.
It’s not Koetter out there on the field making bone headed play after bone headed play. It’s down to the “good” Jameis versus the “bad” Jameis. When he’s good the talent is obvious…when he’s bad…at first it was just inexperience…but three years in I do NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT BEING 23!!! That’s the same crap that had him out in Arizona at 2AM tanked up!
A kid just coming out of college at 23 is one thing…a young man in his third year in the league is totally different. We have a right to increased expectations.
Yes, he still make nightmarish mental mistakes based largely on both hubris and pressure.
And that Joe is what upsets most fans. It IS hubris and not bad coaching!!! The pressure is not due to OL problems…it’s the pressure #3 places on himself to carry the entire team.
Maybe he can grow over these final four games.
December 9th, 2017 at 11:16 am
I want to go down the list and poke holes in each and every argument but ain’t nobody got time for that.
I’ll put Jameis up against any Bucs q.b. who has worn the uniform in the past 20 years. 30-40 idgaf. He got more wins, yards, TDs than any of them.
You should be crying about your all-world frozen gelato who can’t protect a lead to save his action figure collection.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. The best way to beat a good team is to get ahead and stay there,not getting a lead with time left in the fourth quarter. SHUT UP! That don’t make no got dam sense.
Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Dan Marino have the most comeback wins in league history do they suck too?
I see Jameis as John Snow, our oline like the giant ice wall and our opponents defenses as the zombie dragon. Yup John snow is dead, again. Next week I’ll do all got analogies so gmc can figure out what I’m saying about him.
December 9th, 2017 at 11:27 am
The pressure is not due to OL problems…
———————–
AWWWWRGH COME ON!!!!!!
GB sent an A gap blitz. Evans picked up the lb but Sweezy missed the dt. Caleb gets beat by the tackle AND THEN proceeds to literally hit jws arm which causes the fumble. This is all while Jameis is limping on a bad ankle and recovering from a shoulder injury in his throwing arm.
So please pray tell how it’s not due to pressure or oline problems?
December 9th, 2017 at 12:09 pm
while other NEW qbs are coming in throwing td’s all over the dam place….
did Russell Wilson take 4 years
whats age got to do with it when HE chose to leave early smh
just sounds like excuses….if the last 4 games aren’t a HUGE improvement
I’m drafting insurance…..(baker Mayfield)…SORRY NOT SORRY….let the best man win
December 9th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
@ defense Rules
I am not really sure why I wrote plenty of time. Like you I think he will be evaluated at the end of next year. Along with the things you mentioned, I think the his slow starts have to be fixed and that is an issue that he has had since college.
December 9th, 2017 at 5:16 pm
Hey Nate, the Bucs have a backup QB in FITZ and Ryan Griffin. I hate to break it to you but this team WILL NOT draft a QB. This team MUST improve both OFFENSIVE & DEFENSIVE LINES. Jameis helped this team go 9-7 last year.
Before you are ready to dump Jameis lets see what some of these so called good young QB’s like Jared Goff do Next Year with a first place schedule. Right now its dump on Jameis and some of the criticism he deserves but he is UNDER CONTRACT and next year will definitely tell the TRUE story
December 9th, 2017 at 6:33 pm
I wanna see a guy who leads by example not by shouting random stuff. He needs a leash.
December 9th, 2017 at 11:41 pm
I’d put money on Jameis being a backup QB somewhere in 2 years
December 10th, 2017 at 2:19 am
^ A safer bet would be that be that you are in an asylum within the same 2 years, watching Jameis throw TDs while screaming at your ward mates, “mangoes eat soccer balls in the NFL”.