After a day where Mike Smith had to face the music regarding the defense, it was offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s turn to address the state of his offense on Thursday. Though they have had a successful go of it, they are now entering the second quarter of the season with Jameis Winston getting his first start of the year for the Bucs.

Fortunately for Monken, he mentioned that there’s not much he has to change in regards to his play calls going from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Jameis Winston. He alluded to the hard work Winston put in both training camp and preseason, and how it is helping him this week.

Monken then gave an honest and fair assessment of his offense through four games. The team’s biggest problem, to no surprise of anyone, is the lack of a running game. Second on the list was executing in the red zone.

The Bucs have a league worst 278 yards rushing and equally league worst 3.1 yards per attempt. But some of that has to do with their explosive passing attack.

Jameis Winston was up next at the podium to talk about his return to being the starter. He disclosed that he remained in Tampa during the bye week to continue working on his game. When asked if there is any pressure about continuing the offensive success that they’ve had, Winston said no, claiming he feels that in general and always wants the team to be great.

Winston has had a favorable time playing in Atlanta during his career. He is undefeated on the road against the Falcons, throwing five touchdowns in just two games. Winston thinks his success in Atlanta is because it’s almost like a home game for him, with his hometown of Bessemer, Alabama not being that far away.

Another interesting anecdote that was found out was that Winston played the role of his own personal general manager during his suspension. While he practiced during the three game absence, he recruited specific receivers that had similar attributes to the likes of Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, and others.

Last up was head coach Dirk Koetter, who revealed that the Bucs will finally be voting for team captains in the near future. Part of the reason why is because there is a league deadline for jerseys to have the “C” logo stitched onto it.

Koetter also expressed that he wanted to take this long before voting so it wouldn’t be just a popularity contest. He wanted to see the team play through some adversity together to find out who the real leaders are, and not just have perceived leaders.

Coach indicated that the selections would not be made by the end of this week. Kotter then confirmed that he has not had a team vote for captains after a season has already started at anytime in his coaching career.