The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback position has been a hot-button issue throughout the 2020 offseason.
The rumors regarding the team’s interest in alternatives to incumbent Jameis Winston began flying during Senior Bowl week and have not let up since.
The latest buzz surrounds Teddy Bridgewater, who has spent the last two seasons backing up Drew Brees with the divisional rival New Orleans Saints.
Mike Sando of The Athletic (subscription required) broached the topic in his latest work:
As Sando writes, “‘I am hearing Tampa Bay is hot on Bridgewater,’ a GM said.”
The piece goes on to speculate that Winston could sign with New Orleans should he find himself on the outs with Tampa Bay and serve as Brees’s backup for a year before potentially taking over as the starter.
The Draft Network’s J.C. Cornell added more fuel to the Bridgewater fire on Twitter this afternoon:
Teddy Bridgewater is the front runner right now for the Buccaneers
— JC Cornell (@CornellNFL) March 5, 2020
The reports come on the heels of head coach Bruce Arians’s non-committal comments at the 2020 NFL Combine regarding Winston’s potential future as a Buccaneer:
“As a head coach, you have to decide. Is there a better option?” Arians said.
He went on to describe the former first overall pick from the 2015 NFL Draft as an “unknown quantity.”
Rumors of the Buccaneers possibly heading in another direction at quarterback first began swirling during Senior Bowl week in January.
It was reported then that the team coveted longtime Los Angeles Chargers signal-caller Philip Rivers, who looked to be parting ways with the team after 16 seasons.
Tampa Bay was also rumored to be keen on Washington’s Jacob Eason and Utah Stae’s Jordan Love in the upcoming 2020 NFL Draft.
Then, the whispers about six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady started emerging from the NFL Combine.
ESPN’s Matthew Berry even went so far as to project Tampa Bay as the most likely landing spot for the future Hall of Famer based on his conversations with league sources and personnel at the combine.
Bridgwater comes as just the latest in a two-month barrage of non-stop whispers that Arians is looking to move on from Winston.
What, at first, appeared to be nothing more than a negotiating tactic may be morphing into a foregone conclusion that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have a different quarterback at the helm when the team takes the field in 2020.
Scott Reynolds of Pewter Report reported the team is likely to let Jameis Winston test the free-agent waters and will not apply the franchise tag to prevent him from leaving.
Now, such an approach does not preclude Winston from remaining a Buccaneer as he could find out Tampa Bay has the best offer on the table.
The team seems to be banking on the market not being as bullish on the embattled quarterback as he is on himself.
It’s possible Winston does not receive any offers to become a starter elsewhere and chooses to remain in Tampa for less money (or years) than he was previously seeking.
There are approximately two weeks until free agency fully opens on Wednesday, March 18 at 4 p.m. EST. Until then, Winston is still technically a Buccaneer, but he may not be thereafter.
