The PR Bucs Monday Mailbag is where PewterReport.com’s Mark Cook answers your questions from our Twitter account. You can submit your question each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.

Below are the questions we chose for this week’s edition of the PR Bucs Monday Mailbag. Read them over and offer up your thoughts in the comment section.

Question: Are we going see Ronald Jones in more an Alvin Kamara type role? I have a suspicion this coaching staff thinks Barber can be the bell cow back.

Answer: While no one really knows how it will pan out between now and the start of the season, I think if the Bucs got the same production of out of Jones as the Saints did with Kamara, they would be thrilled. 728 rushing yards, along with another 826 as a receiver, plus a total of 13 touchdowns would please Dirk Koetter and his staff very much. However, is Barber capable of the almost 1,600 total combined yards and 12 touchdowns that Mark Ingram was able to put up for the Saints in 2017?

I do believe the Bucs will let the battle play out in camp, and Jones could very well be the starter and get the majority of the snaps, if he shows the ability to learn the little details of playing in the NFL (like pass protection). But, as Koetter has shown, he does platoon his backs over the course of the game, somewhat. Barber will get his touches for sure. And of course we aren’t even bringing up the possibility of injuries, or that Charles Sims most likely will also see the field some as well.

Kamara and Ingram had a terrific season last year, and it will be very difficult for the Bucs’ backs to duplicate the success. In fact, it will be hard for the Saints to duplicate the same success. And I can’t say at this point that either Jones or Barber are the same receiver Kamara is out of the backfield.

Question: Any chance Jameis Winston takes a hometown discount, meaning at least not becoming the highest paid QB when he hits FA (hopefully only in Top 5-10 in salary)? We drafted him with the question marks and we have continued to support him on and off the field.

Answer: I see what you are saying, and yes this team has supported him 100 percent, but with that said, if I am Winston, I am not giving a discount to anyone. Getting the second contract in the NFL is the one that players and agents strive for and try to get the most out of, as the career life expectancy in the NFL can be short lived. While I can definitely see Winston playing another 8-10 years, who really knows what will happen? Does the shoulder issue become a chronic problem down the road? Is there another injury on the horizon? No one can look into the future and see, so why would any player or agent give a discount on their second deal? Now, I do see Winston as a guy who would be quick to restructure to help free up money down the road, like many top quarterbacks do. But not in this next deal.

If Winston performs like a Top 10 quarterback in 2018 then he will deserve every penny he gets. The Bucs have spent 42 years trying to find a franchise quarterback and don’t want to spend the next 42 trying to find another. Bite the bullet, lock him up with a new deal and rest easy for the next 6-10 years with the deal he gets. And while he could be the highest paid quarterback, or maybe Top 3 after next season, five years from now he could easily be the 15th highest paid with the rise in quarterback contracts.

Question: What are your thoughts on the fact that the Bucs have approximately $13 million in cap space in 2019 and have Donovan Smith, Ali Marpet, Kwon Alexander and Jameis Winston to sign? Who is priority for Bucs to get signed?

Answer: No one really knows the exact cap number will be in 2019, but we do know it won’t be enough to cover all of the players you mentioned if the Bucs extend/re-sign them. Obviously of the ones you mentioned, Winston is the most important and will also take up the biggest chunk of change. But, of those, Winston might be the last of them to get a new deal. Tampa Bay has already locked up his fifth-year option for 2019, and then could always use the franchise tag on him, if it got to that point in 2020.

But also remember, the money that the new deal includes, if done early, takes the place of the money he was scheduled to earned. So, for instance, if a player is projected to count say $5 million on the books, and a new deal is done for let’s say $9 million a year, that is only a $4 million net increase. So when people see only $13 million available, and then all these projected increases, you have to deduct the current salary from the total. Now that is only the case with re-done deals that come before the current contract expires. If a player hits unrestricted free agency then of course it is the full annual amount that gets counted against the cap.

With that said, the Bucs have the best in the business, in my opinion, when handling these deals and they won’t be caught off guard. Mike Greenberg and the front office that handles the financial ends of things have already looked into that far more intently than we have on how they can make these deals work. Will there be a time when the Bucs have $70 million to spend in free agency anytime soon? Hopefully not, to be honest. Because that means you don’t have a franchise quarterback, and a nucleus of players that have earned second contract deals, which means you haven’t drafted well, which then means you aren’t a very good football team.

The Bucs don’t seem to be heading in that direction — thank goodness.

Question: Curious to know when the Bucs plan on using the new indoor facility. I know they will still practice outside for conditioning reasons, but when will they go indoors?

Answers: There hasn’t been really any announcement on how the facility will be used, but we do know rained out or rescheduled training camp and regular season practices are a thing of the past. The new facility also has room for seating inside and perhaps there will even be a few training camp practices indoors although there aren’t four football fields inside of it like there are outside. So I think any indoor practices in training camp would be rare. Dirk Koetter isn’t one of those Ray Perkins-types who thinks the players need to grind and sweat under the sweltering heat two or three times a day, and thinks while it could be an advantage over visiting teams to a degree, he also knows the long-term effect could be more detrimental than beneficial. I suspect at last once a week you will see the team indoors, at least until the brutal heat and humidity months are over around late October. The team most likely also uses the facility more on the weeks that they will be playing road games in turfed stadiums. Like Week 1 against the Saints to open the season.