Peter King

Iconic NFL insider and unmatched pontificator Peter King, formerly of Sports Illustrated and now all-in with NBC Sports, has been wagging a finger at Bucs general manager Jason Licht and Jameis Winston on a national stage.

The three-game suspension of America’s Quarterback for inappropriate sexual touching, per the NFL, has King shaking his head at the state of the Buccaneers.

King was impressed that Team Glazer lost its “itchy trigger finger” this offseason and retained Dirk Koetter but he believes only a miraculously successful return by Jameis will keep the regime employed.

“I think he might come back saying all the right things and everything, but I mean [Jameis has] got to come back with his tail between his legs,” King told the PFT PM podcast.

“Jason Licht told everybody who would listen, ‘We did all of the homework that we needed to do on this guy. We have faith in him and all this.’

“I don’t know categorically what [Jameis] did. So I can’t sit here and say he’s evil incarnated. I just will say this, that Jameis Winston entered the league with two strikes on him and Mariano Rivera on the mound. I mean, he couldn’t afford any mistakes and he’s made a few. And right now you’re the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; you have to win this year. And so you’re going to have the mayhem of losing your starting quarterback for the first three games of the year. I would guess, just like you, that they’re going to go 0-3 anyway. But it’s just a bad situation for your starting quarterback to be suspended for the exact reason why a lot of people in football and in life eschewed before he was drafted. And so I don’t see much positive out of that.”

King wondered aloud whether Jameis can play without “real rookie mistakes” and that he might need to win nine or 10 games out of his potential 13 starts this year to save jobs.

Joe thinks King was being overly dramatic and taking things a little far.

Does Team Glazer really think the Bucs, in the NFC South, are a playoff contender? No, Joe highly doubts that. But Team Glazer will need to see a football team that doesn’t dig itself a crater in the first half of the season, doesn’t lose more than it wins, and a quarterback who looks like a veteran, No. 1 overall pick.