Bucs’ Winston makes strides each week, growing into leader
Bucs rookie quarterback Jameis Winston scored more points with teammates after beating the Falcons in overtime. By Roy Cummings | Tribune Staff Published: November 7, 2015TAMPA — Legend might one day place the point of demarcation inside the Georgia Dome, on that spot along the sideline where Jameis Winston gathered up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday and urged them to rally around a grieving teammate.And perhaps that is where it lies. There is every reason to believe that in that moment, Winston stopped being just another member of what appears to be a tightly knit band of Buccaneers and became the unquestioned leader of the band.But transformations of that nature are seldom spontaneous, especially in the game of football. More often than not, they take place gradually, over time, and are the byproduct of a series of successes achieved on the field of play.As Tampa Bay returns home to face the New York Giants at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, the Bucs’ rookie quarterback has experienced just such a series of on-field successes. In his past three games, Winston completed 50 of 77 passes for 683 yards and four touchdowns, compiling a 110.5 passer rating that ranks fourth in the league during that span.More importantly, the Bucs won two of those games, including last week in Atlanta, where Winston orchestrated a winning field-goal drive for a 23-20 overtime victory and brought them back to the brink of the .500 mark.“Pre-game speeches can only go so far,” Bucs coach Lovie Smith said. “For a quarterback, it’s as much about your play as anything. And for Jameis to lead us on that (drive), that said an awful lot.”It wasn’t an ordinary leadership effort.Winston bounced back from an errant throw that was nearly intercepted two plays into the drive and converted three third downs to complete the scoring series, which was seen by one of the game’s most seasoned coaches as a testament to his growth.“There’s no question he’s developed,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “I’m seeing a young man that is handling situations and circumstances better and really controlling himself in terms of turning the ball over.”Without question, ball security is the area in which Winston has seemingly grown the most. When he took the RJS field against Jacksonville on Oct. 11, Winston had thrown more interceptions (seven) than touchdown passes (six).But Winston hasn’t throw an interception since. As a result, he enters the Giants game riding a streak of 86 straight passes without an interception, the second longest for a Bucs rookie to Mike Glennon’s run of 139 passes in 2013.It’s a sure sign of growth, largely the result of Winston displaying the critical ability to make adjustments as plays develop.“Not turning the ball over starts with not just randomly throwing the ball to the spot where we may have designed the play to go that week,” Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said. “And that’s what Jameis is starting to do. He had a little bit of a tendency earlier to … not really look at what the defense was doing. But now he’s being smarter with the football, smarter with his decisions. And for the most part he’s getting the ball out quicker.”The quicker release, something the Bucs have tried to create since they selected Winston with the first overall pick in the draft in May, is another sign of growth, as well as an indication that Winston is fast developing a comfort level with the offensive scheme and his receivers. Winston also has quickly come to realize that taking the checkdown and throwing the ball to a safety valve, or simply throwing it away, are some of the best decisions a quarterback can make.“He’s starting to settle in and realizes now that he doesn’t have to make every throw,” said former NFL quarterback and current CBS Sports analyst Kurt Warner. “And with that, you’re starting to see who he was in college again, that kind of player.“He’s always been a kid who steps up in big moments, and no moment is too big for him. We saw that a number of times throughout his career (at Florida State University), and we’re seeing it right now. He’s making some big throws.”He’s making some big runs, too. Against Atlanta, Winston turned two dying third-quarter plays into major gains, by running for 21 yards off a broken pass play and by running for a 4-yard touchdown.“For Jameis to react that fast and turn that into a run, that was a heck of a play,” Koetter said of the touchdown. “We were running a shovel pass there, and they brought a total blitz on us, (but he) handled it great. Then on the other one, that was a pass play all the way. But for some reason they took the rush outside and the pocket just opened like the Red Sea and Jameis saw it, made a nice pump fake and just ran it.”Not all of Winston’s decisions are sound, though. The Bucs have urged him not to stick his head into a pile of tacklers to help a running back gain an extra yard, as he did on Doug Martin’s run that set up the winning field goal.But that’s Winston.Just as before the game, when he implored the Bucs to use the death two days earlier of rookie linebacker Kwon Alexander’s 17-year old brother as motivation, his tendency to react to the moment draws raves from teammates.“When Jameis talks, it’s really genuine, from the heart and really emotional,” Bucs center Joe Hawley said. “And when a guy talks like that, you really respect it. He’s really competitive, he’s a great leader and he just continues to grow.”[email protected]Twitter: @RCummingsTBO
