Bucs fans and SR’s Fab 5 readers debated the talent acquisition of general manager Jason Licht and if James Winston was worthy of being called a franchise quarterback after Tampa Bay’s loss to Los Angeles. What does PewterReport.com publisher and Bucs beat writer Scott Reynolds have to say? Find out right here.

Welcome to another installment of SR’s Fab 5 Reaction where every week I take the time to answer your questions and respond to your comments from the previous week’s SR’s Fab 5 column. Due to time constraints from my responsibilities as publisher, I am unable to respond to every reader comment each week, but I do read every one of them.

Comments have only been edited for clarity and grammar. Now on to your comments.

Topics in last week’s SR’s Fab 5 include: Inside The Bucs’ 2-Minute Drill vs. Rams; Inside The Bucs’ Final Play Against The Rams; Bucs Don’t Have Enough Talented Winners Yet; Spence Is A Work In Progress

That was an interesting SR’s Fab 5. I thought the zebras missed a few other calls during the game. I know they can’t see everything but some were blatant penalties.


Not calling the time out really pissed me off. Come on, man. Get with the program.

Chemistry and the culture will change, as long as Dirk Koetter keeps telling it like it is. No smoke. No B.S.

Total honestly and accountability will bring these guys around. I’m not a big Bill Belichick fan, but that’s how he does it. No B.S. – just do your job. Sometimes I think that football players are to mollycoddled for their own good.

The team has a gut check coming up. Grown men own up to their shortcomings and I see that is the case with the Bucs.

I’ve been thinking about the ASJ thing all week. Maybe the Bucs could have put him in rehab and tried to help him with his illness. It’s a tough call anyway you look at it. Hopefully he doesn’t have animosity toward the Bucs. He had his chances. Or, at least I hope he had chances. It’s a hard thing to tell your employer that you can’t stop drinking. Best of luck, ASJ.


Go Bucs. Still love you. Always will.  – chetthevette

I too appreciate Dirk Koetter’s no-B.S. approach, chetthevette. I think he’s done a good job of communicating with the players and they appreciate his honesty. His approach is that of a more talkative Bill Belichick and I think it resonates well with the team. That trust will buy Koetter time until this team wins, but it has to win for the players to remain buying what he’s selling.

You’re right in saying that Austin Seferian-Jenkins had his chances. I’m a big believer in personal responsibility and not blaming others for your problems. Seferian-Jenkins didn’t hold himself personally accountable and I think Koetter and general manager Jason Licht did the right thing for the team over the long haul by parting ways with this talented, yet troubled player. It was important for Koetter, a first-year head coach to send a message to the team that either you get serious about winning or it’s out the door. – SR

Hey SR, stop making excuses for Jameis Winston. While on one hand you say he is inaccurate, which he is, you excuse him by saying they should have called time out to calm him down.

Bucs K Roberto Aguayo – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Bottom line, everyone sold us fans that Winston is a franchise QB. If he were, he would have found a way to win that game.

And what about the hole that our kicker put us in? Roberto Aguayo was a major reason we lost the Rams game. Do you not want to address that because you supported Jason Licht drafting him?

I used to think you all did objective analysis, I now think you’re a shill for the team. I like you guys a lot and respect you, but feel like you have lost perspective given your full-throated support of Licht, Winston and Aguayo. – Bucnut2

I’m not making any excuses for Jameis Winston by pointing out that he was 1-of-6 for 12 yards when the Rams game was on the line. Yes, Dirk Koetter should have called a timeout in hindsight, and yes, the refs should have thrown a flag on Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers on the last play for illegal contact on tight end Cameron Brate. But Winston should have hit a wide-open Vincent Jackson for a game-winning touchdown or a wide-open Charles Sims right after that missed opportunity.

Winston does get too excitable and I was suggesting that in hindsight Koetter’s timeout might have done just as much good in getting Winston settled down, as it would have stopping the clock. No excuses there.

As for Aguayo, yes, he has to make the extra point and the 41-yard field goal. I addressed that in my 2-Point Conversion column and will do it again here. He has to make those kicks – rookie or not.

Yes, I did support Jason Licht’s decision to draft Winston and Aguayo and there is some shakiness to the Aguayo decision right now. I can objectively say that, and I’m far from being a shill for the team. I’m going to wait more than four games to draw some concrete conclusions about this 2016 season, but if some people that I’ve editorially supported – Licht, Winston, Aguayo and Koetter – buckle and don’t perform you can bet I’m going to call them out. After all, I chose to publish your comment. – SR

I don’t think SR was making any excuses, quite the contrary. I was ambivalent about the non-called timeout, but now that I know what Dirk Kotter was trying to accomplish. I completely agree with the strategy because it would have worked except for the overthrown ball.


Winston has to learn how to stay more composed and get less excitable. Perhaps Mike Glennon can give him a clue as to how he remains so dormant all the time.


However, what lost the Rams game wasn’t Winston, who had to toss the ball close to 60 times. It was our new and improved defensive scheme and anemic pass rush.

Bucs Ss Chris Conte and Bradley McDougald – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

When I heard this defense was more complex than our previous defense – what wouldn’t be? – I stated at the time that wasn’t the greatest thing in the world since we don’t have a lot of members of MENSA playing on that side of the ball.


Sure enough, it seems to be what has gotten this team in the most trouble as we have seen numerous big plays come to fruition due to blown coverages and miscommunication, mainly from the cornerbacks.


Still, I do have hope for this team if it can improve in making sure everyone is on the same page as far as the coverages being called. Also, I saw one play where Gerald McCoy was dropped back into coverage and I hope they never do that lunacy again.


As far as team captains our concerned, I just don’t have too much faith in McCoy. I saw his team speech last week and it sounded like he was leading his team into a church service, not battle, which is what an NFL game is.


Somehow the team needs a leader who is a starter on defense that can deliver a fiery speech and lead like Winston can with the offense. Kwon Alexander, anyone? – drdneast

It was important to explain in detail why Dirk Koetter didn’t use a timeout after Charles Sims failed to get out of bounds after his 12-yard catch – not necessarily opine if it was the right thing to do. Glad you understood that, drdneast.

Yes, the Bucs defense is a work in progress, and it is a more complex scheme under Mike Smith than it was under Lovie Smith. Part of the problem is the lack of experience in the scheme as Tampa Bay has played just four games in the new defense. The other part of the problem is that the Bucs lack enough talent to overcome some communication issues, especially in the secondary.

Safety is a weakness on the team right now, and starting cornerback Brent Grimes is clearly on the downside of his career. Leadership in terms of stepping up and making plays when it counts is also a big issue. I think you are on the right track with the suggestion of Kwon Alexander stepping up. I write about him extensively in this week’s upcoming SR’s Fab 5. – SR

There is a big misunderstanding by many of our Bucs fans about what is meant by calling someone a franchise quarterback. A franchise quarterback is a quarterback who has shown he can operate at a high level of performance over many years. Jameis Winston is not there yet! He won’t be next week or next month, either.

He may or may not actually perform at that level by the end of this season. He has much to learn and much plain old experience to acquire over time in order to reach his potential.


Just go back and check out a franchise quarterback named Brett Favre. He threw many interceptions early on in his career. Check out Drew Brees’ career, too. When would anyone be able to say he had earned the “franchise” label? In the middle of his second season? After his third? His fourth? The labels are always easy to assign in retrospect.


My point is that it always premature to call an NFL quarterback a “franchise QB” before at minimum two years. It is not really likely to be valid until after three or four years.


Anyway, Winston has shown a tendency to overthrow his target frequently in his first 19 games. He may have gotten away with those throws in college, but he can’t in the pros. I am sure that his coaches are working with him to break bad habits. This is why the word “repetitions” is so prevalent in coachspeak.

Patience with Winston and with the team is needed. They are working their butts off. Keep up your support. Don’t expect miracles this year. – XpfcWintergreen

Good point, XpfcWintergreen. Was it too early to call Jameis Winston a franchise quarterback? Should we have said he has the makings of being a franchise quarterback instead?

Perhaps we should have pumped the brakes on Winston a bit, but I’ll continue to bet on him because he’s a highly intelligent player. He’s in a sophomore slump with 10 turnovers in the first four games, but he’ll get it figured out and turn it around due to his desire to be great and his competitiveness.

The reason he got tabbed as a “franchise QB” so early was easy. He was drafted to be that as the first overall pick and delivered a 4,000-yard season that ended with two touchdown passes in the Pro Bowl, breaking several Bucs rookie records a long the way. Also, Tampa Bay has been yearning for a franchise quarterback for the last 40 years, so it’s easy to proclaim Winston just that out of desperation. – SR

When you lose a lot then you have to look who has been the most involved in all those losses the last three years? Only one name comes up for me – general manager Jason Licht.

Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Oh, he’s hit on some picks, but has also blown others. I guess I can never prove he pulled the trigger early on some of our picks by using other draft picks to move up. I know he is learning as a young GM, but I hope he has learned from some of his mistakes. We need to acquire more draft picks, not less.

Nobody wants Mike Glennon – get something for him, please. The real problem is we still don’t have enough quality players because we’re still starting back ups as starters from the get go. I’m trying to figure how we are going to get to six wins this seasons; somewhere we’re going to have to beat a good team. Go Bucs! – Horse

Jason Licht is not above criticism, Horse. He clearly missed on tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins the person more so than the player with his first second-round pick as general manager back in 2014. His second-round picks this year – defensive end Noah Spence and kicker Roberto Aguayo – have done little to live up to their hype, although it’s really early. Spence has just one sack and got hurt against Denver, while Aguayo was in a preseason slump and missed a critical extra point and field goal against Los Angeles.

I’ve been a big fan of a lot of Licht’s personnel moves thus far. He’s added a lot of talent to this team in the three years he’s been here – more than his predecessors Bruce Allen and Mark Dominik did. A true evaluation of his draft classes can’t be made until the next year or two, but I believe he has more hits than misses right now. Yet if the scales flip and he winds up with more misses than hits that will not escape my attention.

As for Mike Glennon, you say nobody wants him (meaning Bucs fans, I presume), but then you want Licht to get something for him? I don’t think he has much trade value after a less than stellar showing in the 2014 regular season and the last two preseasons. In fact, I think there’s a 50-50 chance that there may not be a big market for his services in the offseason and he re-signs with Tampa Bay in the offseason. We’ll see. – SR