What can you get for $30 million? The short answer, apparently, is a quarterback who throws 28 interceptions in a single season.
With the NFL offseason quickly approaching, especially for teams with no playoff aspirations, the speculation of transactions has already begun. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one of these teams.
The fanbase and local media debate back and forth with what they would do. Sign this guy, cut that guy, he’s not worth that kind of money, on and on.
In the age of social media, when you see a tweet with somewhat shocking news, you tend to be hesitant to believe anything that doesn’t come straight from the team itself. But in the past week, that changed ever so slightly as the Marshawn Lynch crazy and far-fetched rumors became a reality.
Then, on Christmas Eve, J.C. Cornell of The Draft Network took to Twitter with a scoop that put the Buccaneers’ fanbase on its head.
#GoBucs scoop on Jameis:
I have heard Jameis is looking for over $30M a year in an extension. Would be extremely unhappy with a franchise tag. There are other markets that would value Jameis much more than Tampa Bay. Chicago comes to mind.
— JC Cornell (@CornellNFL) December 24, 2019
Now, history has proven that you can’t believe everything you read on Twitter. However, Cornell isn’t just some fan with a Twitter account, as he was the first person to tweet the news of the Bruce Arians hiring.
Jameis Winston is a stat machine. He’s thrown for more yards and touchdowns than any other Buccaneers quarterback ever has. But setting Buccaneers passing records isn’t exactly a hard accomplishment, given the rather low bar set by his predecessors.
However, Winston just doesn’t set Buccaneers records, but he owns quite a few NFL records as well. So, at first glance, this tweet seems to make sense. For a 25-year-old quarterback who throws the ball at a record-setting pace, an extension seems like a no brainer, right?
But along with all the yards, touchdowns and records, Jameis Winston turns the ball over more than any other quarterback in the league, not just this year but nearly every year since he was drafted No. 1 overall in the 2015 draft. Winston leads the league in interceptions and it’s not even close. He has thrown six pick-sixes this season alone. To his credit, Winston has gotten the fumbling issue under control, something that has plagued him since entering the league.
Head coach Bruce Arians has defended Winston in his post-game press conferences all season long, reminding everyone that the offense is still learning a new system. He has also blamed wide receivers for running the wrong routes on numerous occasions.
No, I don’t expect a head coach to bash his quarterback, especially through the media, but 30 interceptions? That isn’t as simple as a bad route here or there; that’s a totally different problem, in my opinion.
Obviously, there’s plenty of time for this debate to fester before any decisions are made.
But the questions that will face the Buccaneers, are as follows.
Do the Buccaneers pay Winston the $30 million per year?
Do they offer him a multi-year deal worth $20 million to $25 million per season filled with incentives that could potentially get him his desired $30 million?
Do they franchise tag him? We have seen this play out in different ways in the past couple of offseasons with other players.
If the Bucs were fully invested in Winston, why did they not extend him this past offseason when he was entering the final year of his rookie contract? Granted, they probably wanted to see what he would look like in the new offensive system, but maybe they were just playing this season with the quarterback they already had and they have no plans on resigning him.
As always, we have months to speculate and see what happens.
