Forget Tom Brady!
February 10th, 2020
Not coming, says former GM.
In the eyes of one former NFL general manager, Mr. Entertainment, America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, is better for the Bucs than Tom Brady.
That doesn’t mean Jameis is the answer.
In a recent column for “The Athletic,” former Browns general manager and coffee fetcher for Bill Walsh, Al Davis and Bill Belicheat argues that Brady at his age does not fit what the Bucs want to do offensively. And in fact, Jameis is better for the Bucs than Brady — and that’s in throwing deep early and often.
However, Mike Lombardi admitted he’s tired of Jameis’ act and said Jameis has been, is and always will be a turnover machine so the Bucs must keep looking for a quarterback.
But for the present, Lombardi said, Jameis is maybe the best fit for the Bucs until he can be replaced.
The Bucs have the ultimate 30 for 30 player in Jameis Winston. If they franchise him, he will serve as their bridge player. If they don’t, they need to explore the market for one, which could be tricky as the Bucs must franchise Winston before they search. Either way, the Bucs, like the Raiders, know they need to improve at the position and have serious doubts about their current starter. For the last five years, everyone, including Winston, has talked about cutting down on his mistakes and sometimes lackadaisical play. Yet, once the season starts nothing changes. The Bucs are naïve if they think 2020 is going to be a new year for Winston. Would Brady play in Tampa? I am sure Jason Licht, the general manager of the Bucs who spent time in New England, would love having him…but Brady in pewter and orange would never look right, and it wouldn’t be a particularly great fit, either. The Bucs’ offense under Bruce Arians loves to take shots down the field, loves to hit the home run ball on every drive, which is not an area that highlights Brady’s strength. Brady only attempted 52 passes over 20 yards all season, completing 20. Meanwhile, Winston attempted 90. Brady is best when he can use his mind, his mid-range passing game to highlight his skills — which is not what the Bucs do well.
Could the Bucs adjust the offense to be a mid-range offense? Look at the receivers and tight ends this team has. If coached up, how could they not succeed at the mid-range game?
But to expect Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians to drastically change his ways at 67 is naive as well. Arians is Arians. The Bucs knew what they were getting when they hired him. They wanted him, right?
February 10th, 2020 at 12:12 am
Translation: they have to keep JAmEiS until they improve their Offensive line bc if you put Brady or any other QB back there it will end their career and they too will throw for more interceptions than they have in their entire career and that will blow up our (the medias) narrative.
February 10th, 2020 at 12:13 am
It will be interesting these next few days to see if any truth is in the new rumor going around about the Bucs going after the Bengals #1 pick…
Why was the Bucs even mentioned as one of the teams the Bengals are listening to?
It sure would make the Bucs an even more intriguing team to follow if that is true..
February 10th, 2020 at 12:58 am
From #14 to #1… that’s a pricey trade but the hardest part to believe is that Cinncy would let an Ohio golden boy go elsewhere. There would be no safe place for GM to dine out after disappointing fans with a trade like that.
February 10th, 2020 at 1:07 am
Dan Sileo started that so tread VERY carefully.
February 10th, 2020 at 1:18 am
I’m excited if Jameis comes back. This team was very exciting last year when they finally got the wheels rolling and before the injuries. We were a hot team on a streak and actually thinking about the playoffs. If our defense starts faster next year and Jameis cuts the TOs, which IMO is safe to say he will, we are gonna be in the hunt in December.
Let’s do a 2-3 year deal, build up the trenches in the draft, find another rb, and watch Jameis throw for half the INTs in year two. Let’s go. Go BUCS!!!
February 10th, 2020 at 1:56 am
I love how all the JW nuthuggers predict less interceptions… granted he probably would throw less… probably a humble 22 picks… which is still TERRIBLE…EVEN 15 IS TERRIBLE. look at how many picks playoff Quarterbacks throw… 15 is not playoff material… NEXT QB PLEASE
February 10th, 2020 at 2:31 am
Hey steel stud muffin- ya I love huggin me some nuts. I’m nuts about nuts!
Don’t forget my passion for jock sniffing. Oh and riding jock. Jock’s jock.
February 10th, 2020 at 3:06 am
If they do sell the farm for the #1 pick I honestly hope it’s not for Burrow but Tua.
Burrow is a one hit wonder IMO and Brady who got promoted because of it was the answer.
And speaking of the other Brady could his 38 less attempts at passes over 20 yards have anything to do with the fact his receivers are nowhere close as good as what Jameis had.
I’m not listening to what anybody other than BA had to say about it.
February 10th, 2020 at 3:23 am
I’m surprised Joe hasn’t had an article based on the prime time show aired on ESPN from last night(The Year of the Black quarterback).
Jamies was talked about prominently in the show.
February 10th, 2020 at 3:58 am
Alaska’s jock sniffer… you said it not me…
Its plain as day to see, that the only thing holding this team back is ATM… making DBs rich
February 10th, 2020 at 5:07 am
The funny thing is you actually believe that.
February 10th, 2020 at 6:20 am
It’s so weird how everyone is an expert on BA’s offense. Leftwich is running the offense, did he have a smart, big strong armed quarterback the first year he took over as OC? You make do with what you have unless it’s a turnover machine. Of course HE could adjust the offense.
February 10th, 2020 at 6:24 am
Jameis is NOT throwing most of his INTs on deep passes so there’s no need to tie the two together. I remember looking at Jameis’ INTs at the end of the year and wrote this back on January 9th:
“Of the 30 INTs that he threw this year, 7 were Pick-6s, 6 others resulted in our defense surrendering TDs, 4 resulted in FGs, and our defense held on the other 13 INTs. Ironically 20 INTs came on short throws, as opposed to 10 on deep throws. It looks like 21 of the 30 happened on the Tampa Bay side of the field, which obviously ends up being a real bummer for the defense.”
Of the 10 deep INTs, 6 of them came very late in the half or in the game. IOW, Hail Marys (not as concerning as the others). So most of Jameis’ INTs really come on passes shorter than 15 yards down the field (20 INTs), which should be expected because that’s where he throws most of his passes.
NextGen Stats has some some really interesting stats that I’d never seen before but that help explain (to me at least) BA’s ‘Bombs Away’ attack philosophy. One is CAY (Average Completed Air Yards). Air Yards is the vertical yards on a pass attempt at the moment the ball is caught in relation to the line of scrimmage. CAY shows the average Air Yards a passer throws on completions. Another is ICAY (Intended CAY) which is the average Air Yards a passer throws on all attempts.
Jameis is #2 in the NFL in terms of CAY with 8.2 yards, and also #2 in terms of ICAY with 10.5 yards. Pretty much tells me that BA’s system has Jameis throwing the ball further down the field ON AVERAGE than all but 1 other passing system (Matt Stafford with Detroit). So yes, it’s an aggressive passing system.
But NextGen has 2 passing other stats that are more telling IMO. One is AGG% (Aggressiveness tracks the amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within 1 yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. AGG is shown as a % of attempts into tight windows over all passing attempts). Jameis ranks #18 in the NFL in terms of AGG% with 16.8%, significantly less than the leader (Matthew Stafford with 23.4%). So he’s just average in terms of throwing into tight windows (IOW, not really a valid excuse for his excessive # of INTs).
The other stat is AYTS (Air Yards to the Sticks) which is the amount of Air Yards ahead or behind the first down marker on all attempts for a passer. The metric indicates if the passer is attempting his passes past the 1st down marker, or if he is relying on his skill position players to make yards after catch. Here Jameis is again #2 in the NFL with 1.4 yards (Stafford leads the NFL with 1.8 yards). Interestingly almost all of the NFL QBs are either close to 0 or in negative numbers (Matt Ryan was MINUS 1.2, Tom Brady was MINUS 1.6, Drew Brees was MINUS 2.0 and Jimmy Garoppolo was MINUS 2.5). IOW, all those others were relying on their playmakers to get the needed yardage as opposed to throwing past the 1st down marker like Jameis did.
That latter stat (AYTS) tells me a lot about what BA’s passing scheme is expecting of the QB (puts more responsibility on the QB than on the team’s playmakers). It may be telling opposing defenses the same thing and making their jobs easier. Bucs NEED to put more responsibility on our playmakers (WRs, TEs AND RBs) to make plays and put less on our QB (whoever that might be in the future).
February 10th, 2020 at 7:09 am
How about it’s simply wins & losses. I laugh when I read a comment that Winston “will be much better in year 2” of BA’s offense. I guess that the 1st 5 years of Winston losses can’t count against him. Let Winston move on, and let Buc fans look forward to maybe a winning season.
February 10th, 2020 at 7:17 am
No idea why the fat buffoon Lombardi keeps showing up here. But let’s look at his commentary.
“Brady only attempted 52 passes over 20 yards all season, completing 20.”
First of all, McDaniels’ offense doesn’t call for that type of vertical offense like we perhaps do more with BA. Second of all, and MOST importantly flying in the face of the buffoon…is that Brady has ZERO weapons on offense other than Edelman, who is a slot receiver, was injured slot the second half of 2019. NO OTHER WR’s on staff, NO TE’s anymore, they rotated 6 cap ones in and out. Thus the offensive game plan could NOT support a downfield aerial attack, EVEN IF Brady and/or McDaniels wanted to put that game plan together! No one…to throw to. Why is half the reason Tom asked for FA all local NE media days so.
Fat buffoon Lombardi. No idea why The Athletic can’t go respect itself by talking to credentialed, viable ex GM personnel.
February 10th, 2020 at 7:58 am
Very interesting DR
But in this case the amount of INT’S defy logic. Jameis may not have been throwing to tight windows, but if you place balls at or near the the other guy
then they have a chance to make a play..This won’t show up in any stat that I am familiar with . I did see a stat somewhere recently that concluded that Jameis’s passes
overall fell in the high end of less than optimal.
February 10th, 2020 at 7:59 am
edit:
optimal range
February 10th, 2020 at 8:00 am
More crazy then Brady coming here would be Cinn trading the first pick. Burrow is going to Cinn, period. They might keep Dalton as well, his contract isn’t big money. So forget trading up to #1. If you want the next QB, that might be possible to move up for.
February 10th, 2020 at 8:18 am
Bob … I agree that 30 INTs defy logic. Actually what defies logic even more to me is the number of games where he threw MORE THAN 2 INTs in the game. I mean how do you do that? FIVE games with MORE than 2 INTs (we lost 4 of the 5 BTW). , plus ANOTHER FOUR games with 2 INTs (we went 2-2 on those). Those 9 games accounted for 27 of his 30 INTs (and we went 3-6). He actually had 4 games where he threw 0 INTs (we went 2-2 in those), and another 3 games where he only threw 1 INT (we went 2-1 in those).
I still keep wondering how much the demands of BA’s system influenced Jameis’ INTs this past year. MAYBE Jameis is just not a good fit for his system. Or MAYBE it’ll take Jameis a year to adjust to the system’s demands. Who knows.
February 10th, 2020 at 8:20 am
Arians change the O because Jameis is incapable of playing in it? Don’t think so. If Jameis is incapable, he is incapable. Time to move on. Not saying he can play in Arians offense or not. But to change the entire O philosophy in Arians last year or two as a HC? Nonsense.
February 10th, 2020 at 8:21 am
I think Brady and his agent are simply using us as negotiation leverage. I’d be shocked if he really comes here.
February 10th, 2020 at 9:27 am
Brady is not coming here. I’ll be glad when a decision is finally made on Jameis. Free agency/draft can’t get here soon enough. 😜
February 10th, 2020 at 9:36 am
To say “Arians is Arians” is a misstatement on the Bucs offense. Leftwich is calling the plays and if you don’t think Brady and Leftwich could collaborate on play calling….that’s a pretty narrow perspective. Leftwich would love to have a QB with an understanding of game management and protecting every possession.
February 10th, 2020 at 9:37 am
Simply put: Tom Brady doesn’t have the arm to succeed in an Arians offense anymore.
The haters would probably want Arians replaced after Brady failed…when Brady never had a chance because he is simply too old and worn out.
The truth is that Brady will place for the Patriots another year unless he retires.
February 10th, 2020 at 9:46 am
DR
The one thing I will point out is that Jameis had a reputation for at least four bad
games a year long before BA took over. Jameis has improved on his deep ball ,but has regressed in the short and intermediate game which at one time you and I considered a strength . Have you seen the end zone view of the INT in the giants game.Its at Pewter report? I believe it was written on Jan 16 th so you might have to go through five or six pages of articles to find it .The title Jameis Winston 30 INT’s ,all 22 etc. Moving the chains is essential to winning football game especially in the fourth quarder. Jameis squandered a chance to win with his poorly thrown INT at the safety. The poor footwork,throwing motion and ball placement were off the charts terrible. And Jameis failure to recognize Evans looming large in front of him ,open from hashmark to hashmark in time is mind boggling.
February 10th, 2020 at 10:01 am
SteelStudBuc Says:
“granted (Jameis) probably would throw less (interceptions)..… (but) EVEN 15 IS TERRIBLE.”
~~~~~~~~~~
15 is definitely not terrible, SteelStudBuc. If it were with the 5,000 yards and 33 TD’s he had this year, JW would be one of the best QB’s in the league.
Now whether he is capable of actually CUTTING them in HALF….. that we would all have to see.
February 10th, 2020 at 10:58 am
Joe Says:
February 10th, 2020 at 1:07 am
new rumor going around about the Bucs going after the Bengals #1 pick
Dan Sileo started that so tread VERY carefully.
—————-_————
No worries, Joe!.
That is why I made sure to say it’s just a rumor and IF there is any truth…
I noticed he did not name a source…
I’m not like the guy who reported ‘high possiblity’ the Bucs move on from Jameis and then reports the opposite just days latter… Still with no source…
I am up in age from a time when journalism had credibility and few would dare to compromise that..