Suspension Could Void Guarantees In Jameis Winston’s Fifth-Year Option
June 21st, 2018
Bucs GM Jason Licht has much to consider
Several months ago, Joe began looking deeply into whether guarantees in Jameis Winston’s fifth-year contract option for the 2019 season would be voided if he were suspended under the NFL conduct policy.
Joe got plenty of answers from NFL movers and shakers.
The most common answer was, “Great question. That’s definitely unclear.”
Well, Joe got one good answer from a league source. Joe was told it’s a complete gray area and no clarity has been provided by The National Football League Players Association and the league.
So what are the guarantees? Jameis is due about $21 million for 2019, if he’s on the roster when the league year starts in March. That 2019 cash is also guaranteed for injury, meaning if he gets hurt during the 2018 season he gets paid.
If getting suspended does void all guarantees, that would set the Bucs up with additional flexibility to potentially draft a quarterback next spring and then decide on Jameis’ Bucs future after training camp, for example. (This is just an example! Just an example!) On the flip side, Jameis having a good 2018 season with no guaranteed money for the following year could put give Jameis leverage to force a contract extension next spring.
Interesting territory for the Bucs and Jameis. And it’s unclear whether the Bucs have the option to maintain the guarantees, even if they can be voided.
Joe looks forward to hearing how the NFL rules on this. It could become critical.
For those wondering, an example of a suspension voiding guaranteed money would be Doug Martin, who lost all contract guarantees after his suspension to close the 2016 season. The Bucs, however, didn’t use their gift from the football gods and instead chose to pay Martin a fortune to be the worst running back in the NFL for the second consecutive season.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:17 pm
haha, you’re a funny guy, you know that?
The Bucs, however, didn’t use their gift from the football gods and instead chose to pay Martin a fortune to be the worst running back in the NFL for the second consecutive season
June 21st, 2018 at 10:20 pm
This will cost Winston a boatload of cash one way or the other…..
Even if he survives this with the Glazers and gets an extension there will be all sorts of conduct clauses and he won’t be offered as much as he would have without the suspension.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:28 pm
Still no proof of guilt. If they had found guilt the suspension would have been much longer.
This is all about not reporting it, and it would have probably been 6 games, but Jameis agreed not to appeal to get it knocked down to 3 games.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:29 pm
If they get rid of him…well…I don’t know where I’ll stand with this team.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:29 pm
21Million for a 18wins 27 loss QB. That has to be a record!
June 21st, 2018 at 10:30 pm
Damn shame for an innocent man to be victimized like this! I hope this beatch gets her due!!
June 21st, 2018 at 10:32 pm
Buc believer..Jameis isn’t exactly a choir boy…I believe he’s had “issues” before..
June 21st, 2018 at 10:36 pm
I sure hope Jameis can taste that stank crotch every time he eats W’s. This makes me sick.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:36 pm
I think this puts Licht in the drivers seat..no pun intended. If Jameis comes back and sets the league on fire and the Bucs make the playoffs, they don’t exercise the out. If he doesn’t, they exercise it and are free and clear to look elsewhere. Don’t you think they considered that when they offered him the deal…I mean…they had to know the suspension possibility was out there.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:48 pm
“Kobe thinks Jaboo got caught in some lies in the details that the investigator caught him with”
Alot of bradys problems in his suspension was that he was not forthcoming with the answers/ requested evidence/etc
The investigator didnt believe JW3…no actual 3rd person???
Kobe Faker
20 years law and order
15 years CSI
June 21st, 2018 at 10:49 pm
BRING ON FITZMAGIC!!
GO BUCS!!
June 21st, 2018 at 10:54 pm
Buccaneer bonsai please wake up. This is the NFL not a court room. No one needs proof of guilt at all to suspend a player in the NFL in case you have not been paying attention to Tom Brady or is Zeke Elliot. Would people please stop comparing this to a criminal court room. There is no innocent until proven guilty in the NFL. Cry about it all you want but it’s not gonna change the fact that Roger Goodelle can suspend whoever he wants with or without proof. However they looked into it and found more details then we all know before they came up with their decision.
June 21st, 2018 at 10:56 pm
Hey all
The reports coming out are saying Darby wasn’t involved in that part of trip and therefore wasn’t in vehicle. I believe Jameis corroborated that 3 people In car including Darby. They have evident showing otherwise.
. Also, it Appears phone investigation results came back? So it appears it’s more about lies -so what really happened that night. That looks terrible on Jameis if these reports are half true.
And this further could make college incident look worse cause Darby claims he was witness to that incident and that Jameis did nothing wrong.
The GM and coach will get full report. We will never know what really happened. They will. So shame on people for blaming GM and coach if they do have substantial evidence proving these lies. No longer in the trust tree. Just saying.
Shame shame
June 21st, 2018 at 10:58 pm
Donuts
U mean Fitztragic?
June 21st, 2018 at 11:01 pm
Kobe faker
I hear yah. But Brady ‘s lies were about inflating footballs.
Jameis lies are about a sex act on a woman Two completely ends of the spectrum whether anything happened or not.
Not even in same stratosphere
And Jameis may have lied because he was afraid people would jump to conclusions after college incident. Regardless trust issues with everyone inorganization Hope these reports aren’t accurate.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:01 pm
The Bucs Should have been seeking out his replacement THIS off season. They knew that a suspension was highly likely and there were some good quarterbacks available in this draft. Maybe they just feel that Winston is their best chance to win and if they don’t none of them will be here next year anyway; it would be too hard to get a rookie quarterback up to speed in one season.
Buc life!
June 21st, 2018 at 11:04 pm
Typical Bucs storyline. Draft a promising QB and it ends in disappointment. Who’s next?
June 21st, 2018 at 11:07 pm
Sadly Winston has placed the TEAM in a bad situation. We must believe that FITZMAGIC will win 2 of those first 3 games.
Are you a fan of the Buc team or one player, Lamarcus? I am a fan of the team not one player, who lacks good judgment. I wish it were not true.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:11 pm
I needed something to get excited about the Bucs this season. The jokes on US
June 21st, 2018 at 11:21 pm
@Bird and others-
Where are you hearing this about Darby not actually being in the car? Is this a real, or just a theory being circulated in the twittersphere?
June 21st, 2018 at 11:25 pm
Ah, I just saw the tweet from Mike Garafolo.
So he wasn’t in the car the entire time, presumably because he was dropped off before Winston… so the question then is did the driver make the complaint when she was alone, or while others were still in the car?
I have a bad hunch that it’s the former…
Bad times for Bucs fans. Gonna be a whole lot of turnover after 2018 if this is all true.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:25 pm
Greg, apparently you have not read my posts over the past 7 months…I predicted 1-4 games regardless of innocence months ago.
Also, I don’t think you quite understood what I was saying above.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:31 pm
What we know…
Darby wasn’t in the car the entire time Jameis was..
This “third” person is just a ghost..he hasn’t been named or hasn’t come forward because that person doesn’t exist..
What else has Jameis lied about?
June 21st, 2018 at 11:31 pm
Agreed. Bad time for bucs fans.
You can’t get away with anything anymore. I watch Dateline on tv which is kinda lame. With cell phone pinging off towers and other investigation techniques you better have a fool proof plan. Cause pretty easy these days to catch someone in a lie.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:37 pm
I am completely disgusted by everything about this. The leagues way of doing things, Jameis for even being in this position and the Bucs for having such crappy luck. You all know I support Jameis quite a bit on this site but man at what point do we just ask if he’s a idiot? I mean the FSU allegation, the be be gun incident, the standing on the table incident, the crab legs incident, now the Uber incident. All of those can’t just be bad luck, maybe he is just a complete idiot and he won’t stop this type of stuff or making really dumb decisions on the field. All i know is if I’m a teammate of his today I don’t trust or believe he is all about winning cause if he was this type of stuff wouldn’t happen. I don’t know if I can ever trust him again if I’m McCoy, Evans, Marpet, Brate, Howard cause he looks like a complete phony right now. Sad but as one of his biggest supporters I also feel personally betrayed. The season is over and it’s not even July yet, thanks Jameis I hope it was worth it cause you let a lot of people down.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:41 pm
So I told my wife (Patriot fan) about Winston, and she laughed. WTH? Then she said, they suck. I went back to my cave an threw a beer at my trophy Buc helmet spraying beer all over my lousy #3 jersey. I am pissed. 🙁
June 21st, 2018 at 11:41 pm
Bird-
100% on that. Not that I would want him to ‘get away with it’ if true…
But as I said before, it would make sense Darby wasn’t there the entire time cuz when you share an Uber, you would be dropping off each person one at a time. When I was reading earlier comments, I thought they were saying Darby was never in the car at all.
I wonder what we’ll find out about the supposed 3rd passenger.
I feel like I can’t understate all the implications of this on the Bucs as a whole.
The Chucky curse continues…
June 21st, 2018 at 11:42 pm
Ndog…good post..and I agree with it 100 percent..
I too love Dateline..lol..
My biggest problem with this is that damn 3rd person in the car…who we all know by now DOESN”T EXIST..
Now Darby has stated he was not with Jameis the entire car ride..so that leaves Jameis and the driver alone…and the ghost..lol…
June 21st, 2018 at 11:48 pm
Ndog
Touché. I know you have been a huge Jameis supporter
This is bad day for all bucs fans. Appears they wanted to give 6 games but Jameis camp agreed to no appeal process which is bad p/r for nfl so they agreed on 3.
June 21st, 2018 at 11:51 pm
I feel like we go 6-10 with our without him.
Wonder if we should have drafted Josh Rosen?
June 22nd, 2018 at 12:24 am
@Ndog, I just wanna say you completely manned up! Nothing but respect for you.
I have bashed you myself for being such a strong Winston supporter so out of respect I wont even mess with you. I want a winner as much as you do, only difference is I didn’t believe in him and you did. He has let us all down and now he needs to go.
#cutWinston
June 22nd, 2018 at 1:44 am
My former comments were based on Jameis being suspended for failure to report because the NFL did not find him guilty of the offense. If the current accounts are true it is obvious the NFL Acted because Jameis lied as did Darby. If those are the facts Jameis deserved to be suspended and he was lucky to agree no appeal and get it down to three games. He also let his team and his supporters down and he may be lucky to keep his marriage too. He has to come clean and this may effect his play just like it did to Tiger Woods. We may have to trade him and find an experienced QB to take over in the future. We won a Super Bowl with an experienced QB who was no Franchise QB.
June 22nd, 2018 at 2:55 am
Trench wRfsre that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while!
“They suck”
June 22nd, 2018 at 3:57 am
We will find out as much as we can soon enough when the suspension is made official. At that point, we will know as much as we can know.
If Jameis lied during the investigation, this would be considered obstruction. (not in a court of law sense but still obstruction) I propose obstruction of a league investigation would yield more than a 3 game suspension. I also propose failure to report would be more like a 2 game suspension. I’m sitting back before I pronounce judgement. No one on this board has anywhere near complete info.
June 22nd, 2018 at 7:50 am
I thought Drumpf made crotch-grabbing legal. Didn’t he sign an order or something? “You can even grab em by the P#$$^ whenever you want”
June 22nd, 2018 at 7:59 am
I would like to know if the Uber driver was paid off. Surprised some good investigative reporter has not tackled this?
June 22nd, 2018 at 9:43 am
Knowing the Glazers and GM Licht, they will pay JW and then cut him. The Martin case is only one example of this. At least it’s not my money, but sheesh. #PaidFloridaVacation
June 22nd, 2018 at 10:05 am
bonzai
Winston willing to take 3games with no appeal means he’s guilty of something…..c’mon man…..im one of winstons biggest fans….supported him since day 1 even with all his college drama and im a gator fan…lol….
no way in hell he takes a suspension if he’s innocent…..obviously he did something other than failure to report….if it was just that, it would’ve been a 1game suspension or maybe a hefty fine……
think about it…..would you be willing to take a punishment(fine or jail time) for something you didn’t do?…..especially if your engaged, with a child on the way and possibly a 100million dollar guaranteed contract staring at you in the face…..I think not….
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
June 22nd, 2018 at 11:12 am
If Jameis is innocent, he will provide the name of the third guy in the car to the NFL and his team…if not already done. There simply cannot be a case made that Jameis is so loyal to this one guy, that it is worth flagrant disloyalty to all others in the world AND losing $100M. No friend is worth all this, especially if he’s committed sexual assualt that you are blamed for and it is costing you $100M and widespread shame.
I hope I don’t hear him say he will protect his buddy at all costs…that would make a bad thing much worse.
June 22nd, 2018 at 11:25 am
I can’t believe 3 games for failure to report. That is more like 1 game. I CAN HOWEVER, believe three games for lying/covering up info in an investigation (as well as not reporting)…and THAT is why I’m thinking he got 3 games. So when we hear he may get less, that tells me he may have fessed up and told the truth afterall, and they have to confirm it…who was in the car, when, who the third guy was, etc. Just so far, it points to hm and Kate alone together–a detail he maybe left out. Boom…down to one game. All is good for Bucs, Jamies and fans. I see this going to six games if there is reasonable (not court style…NFL CBA style) belief that taken in with lying, he likely did what is alleged. He’s probably getting suspended one way or the other. If it’s 3 games or 6 games, I think the Bucs will draft a QB as his trust is broken with the Bucs. Hope it was just the gamer.