Look, I think the story here is how badly coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are — from everywhere,” Lombardi said. “I am at the point now that as critical as I have been on Jameis Winston, and I have been hard on him, I think that the environment and the culture is so bad in Tampa that I don’t know if I would give up on him.
“I would probably, if someone said you become the [Bucs] president of the team, you have to clear out the culture. You have to change what’s going on down there and you have to see if you can have this kid do it because that is really a bad organization. I mean they are bad. … To me, they have no chance. I mean, whether they keep Jason Licht or not as the general manager, whoever walks in there, what the Bucs better do is hire one guy to run their franchise.
“Now they tried to do that a couple of years ago when they fired Jon Gruden. Look, the Glazers will pay whatever they have to to find a coach. Can you see Brian Kelly from Notre Dame going down there? Without a doubt. Without a doubt, I could see that happening.
“I learned a long time ago you can’t get rid of a player unless you know for sure. And I don’t really know for sure [if Jameis is the franchise quarterback]. But I know one thing for sure, the Bucs are really, really poorly organized, poorly put together and poorly, fundamentally coached. They have no chance.”
At this point, you almost have to do it,” Lombardi said. “You have to let him play. [Journeyman backup Ryan] Fitzpatrick isn’t going to do you any good. You know a new coach is coming in. I don’t know if a new general manager is coming in. I don’t know that. But I think you definitely have to [start Jameis the rest of the season].
“Look, I just think — to me — that is as bad an organization as — I mean they are disorganized.”
Look, when you run the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you have to be really, really concerned about where you are,” Lombardi said. “Tampa is a really interesting town. There is a lot of sh!t going on down there. A lot of strip clubs. A lot of stuff for the players to do. A lot of things outside of football that can affect your team.”
