ROOSTER’S PEWTER PLAYER

DT Vita Vea
Crown him the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year. Go ahead and hand him the trophy. Okay, just kidding, but for the first time this season we finally saw what the player the Bucs hoped they drafted with their first-round pick. It was almost like a light flipped for the rookie from Washington who finished with four tackles, three for loss and a sack, which was his second of the season. Vea, who received a talking to by general manager Jason Licht this week, seemed confident and comfortable for the first time this season. Here is hoping it continues and wasn’t a one-game fluke.

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DE Carl Nassib
Nassib has been a waiver wire steal for the Bucs this season, and continued his good season with an early sack to push his season total to 5.5 on the year. Nassib also added two tackles, including one for a six yard loss in the first half.

WR Mike Evans
Evans ended the game with 116 yards on six receptions, and pushed his season total over 1,000 yards. Five years in the league, and five 1,000 yard seasons for the Pro Bowl-caliber receiver. That is impressive by anyone’s standards. Evans is tough, battles every play and is one of the most unassuming $16 million-per-year people you’ll ever meet.

K Cairo Santos
Oh, what might have been. Had Santos been healthier, he would have been signed last season after Nick Folk flamed out. Had the Bucs got him earlier this season, they could have avoided several Chandler Catanzaro missed kicks.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but maybe this team has a few more wins over the last year with a better kicker like Santos, who buried all of his extra points, and added two field goals on the afternoon to remain perfect on all his kicks this season in Tampa Bay.

QB Jameis Winston
This was a strange Jameis Winston performance. The final numbers were terrific, obviously, but as an observer of Winston since his college days, it is an odd sight seeing a Winston performance that was this safe. No one will complain, as the Bucs took a 27-9 win over the 49ers. It worked well this week against a bad 49ers football team, but will this type of safe, conservative play work against the likes of Carolina, New Orleans and the better teams that remain on the Bucs schedule?

The win did prove one thing. If Tampa Bay doesn’t turn the ball over and it actually notches a couple takeaways itself, the Bucs can win football games. Winston was solid, if not spectacular, and maybe learned a lesson that has been being preached by Dirk Koetter over and over again during the last few years. On the afternoon, Winston was an efficient 29-of-38 passing for 312 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Honorable Mentions: S Jordan Whitehead (11 tackles), DE Jason Pierre-Paul (one sack), DT Gerald McCoy (one sack) and WR Adam Humphries.