Do you remember the press conference a year ago when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook (both on the Oklahoma City Thunder at the time) were at the podium following Game 5 of their playoff series versus the Dallas Mavericks?
In it, Westbrook (who had just gone off for 36 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists) was asked what he thought of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saying he (Westbrook) wasn’t a “superstar” in the league.
Before Westbrook could even get his mouth to the microphone, Durant stepped in and said “Hold up” to Westbrook, and then said into his own mic,
That scene perfectly describes how I feel every time someone asks me about the comments Jason Whitlock made about Jameis Winston on Fox Sports 1 on Tuesday.
If you missed it, Whitlock, as he often does, tried to make something out of nothing by using the contract number offered by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to upcoming unrestricted free agent, Mike Glennon, as a negative against starting quarterback Jameis Winston, saying that offering a backup that much money “says something” about how the Buccaneers really view Winston.
"When a team is willing to make the backup the highest paid guy, I think it says something about Jameis Winston." — @WhitlockJason pic.twitter.com/6o82L7jB0a
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) March 8, 2017
“When the team is willing to make the backup the highest paid guy, I think it says something about Jameis Winston. I think Jameis Winston has a lot of talent, and I think people like Jameis Winston’s emotion, and he’s good television. And, listen, I’m rooting for Jameis Winston. He reminds me of Doug Williams, who was one of my favorite players of all time. But if he doesn’t clean up his emotion and his savvy. He’s not going to make it as a franchise quarterback in this league.”
Man, where do I start?
Bucs HC Dirk Koetter, QBs Jameis Winston and Mike Glennon – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers offering Glennon the $8 million per year contract they did has nothing – and I repeat, nothing – to do with their feelings towards Winston, who is scheduled to have a cap value of $6,913,985 in 2017. All you have to do is listen to, oh, I don’t know, just every single interview head coach Dirk Koetter and general manager Jason Licht have had on their young quarterback to realize there is absolutely nothing “said” about Winston in that contract offer to Glennon. Winston is in the third year of his rookie contract that features over $25 million in guaranteed money, including a signing bonus of nearly $16.7 million.
Second, good teams and good general managers make these kinds of moves. Look at the Dallas Cowboys in 2015 when Tony Romo got hurt. Heck, look at the Oakland Raiders last year with one of the most potent offense in the league when their quarterback, Derek Carr, went down for the year. Teams need very good backup quarterbacks or playoff hopes are dashed.
Ask the 2014 Arizona Cardinals, which is Licht’s former team. The Cardinals were 9-1 until Carson Palmer tore his ACL after signing a long-term extension and going 2-5 down the stretch, including a road playoff loss at Carolina due to poor backup QB play.
But even better examples than that, and the reason a team like Tampa Bay offers Glennon that kind of contract, is because the Buccaneers are so close to the playoffs. The last two Super Bowl Champions, the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, both used backups to win games for them during the regular season of their Super Bowl years when their starters couldn’t go.
Tampa Bay is Top 5 in terms of salary cap availability this offseason. They’re going to be spenders in free agency, and they’re going to acquire the talent to make a run into the postseason, whatever length that may be. Signing Glennon to a deal that for a year or two pays him, if he were to accept, more than Winston makes sense because this is the only time they can do it. Glennon has the chance to start elsewhere in free agency once he hits the open market and will likely earn $4 million more per year than the Bucs offered originally.
In the video, Fox Sports 1’s Chris Carter explains that saying the only time you can sign a top back up to a short-term deal like this is when your franchise quarterback is still under their rookie contract. It’s actually a luxury situation.
Bucs QB Mike Glennon – Photo by: Getty Images
To me, offering Glennon that money on a one-year deal was brilliant. If Tampa Bay has a situation where Winston goes down for the year, would Glennon come in an save an entire season? Probably not. However, if Winston were to suffer an ankle sprain, or something that would keep him out just two or three week, could Glennon get them one, even two wins? Yes, he could, and probably has a better chance to than almost any back up in the league.
Mike Evans’ contract is not up until next season, Winston’s is even further after that. Licht offering Glennon a short-term deal was a savvy insurance strategy that would not hurt the team at all financially in the long run with big name players they want to acquire or keep.
So, before you waste your breath having to defend the Buccaneers from Whitlock’s comments, just follow in Durant’s footsteps and tell them,
“He’s an idiot.”
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About the Author: Trevor Sikkema
Who’s Kevin Durant? Can he play Safety?
LoL….you’re kidding right?
I kid.
Hilarious.
A little sensitive to criticism of our franchise quarterback, are we, Trevor? Geez, grow some thicker skin, guy The reality i, outside of us Bucs homers, the general league wide opinion of Jameis Winston isn’t all that high. Whether deserved or not, that’s a fact, so we Bucs homers need to accept that until Jameis achieves elite status, he’s going to be subject to “well, he’s got good potential, but he hasn’t proved it yet” talk. That also happens to be true. Jameis HASN’T proved he’s elite compared to his peers in the league, and so what? We’re happy with… Read more »
He is an idiot for wearing that stupid hat. Fat guys should not try that fashion statement. I’m a fat guy, I know.
As a matter of fact unless you are as cool as Frank Sinatra do not do it.
GO BUCS
Naples the opinion of jameis isn’t that high around the league?! Who have you interviewed to know this? I’ve seen nothing but the opposite. And apparently you missed the entire point of the article. That nitwit is saying the Bucs value glennon more than Jameis. And I think we all know that’s bs or they wouldn’t have drafted jameis in the first place. And while he isn’t elite yet, the guys broken just about every Bucs record you could break in two years. Is jameis too emotional at times? Sure, but what exactly does that have to do with glennon… Read more »
I’m not saying league wide opinion of Jameis is low … it’s perfectly in tune with his middle of the pack performance, which is OK for a player with two seasons under his belt. Actually, no, the man didn’t say Glennon’s value was higher than Winstons based on the offer to Glennon.. look at the numbers, Winston is on a $26M contract, with $16M signing bonus two years ago, and the Bucs are reported (but it’s not officially announced) to have offered Glennon $8M for a year. What Whitlock clearly said is that he thinks the Bucs are hedging their… Read more »
Actually you did say opinion of Jameis low, can you not read your own comments? As for your sources saying such, you still have yet to reveal them. And you clearly interpret this interview differently than every other person whose seen it. I watched in interview with Brandon Marshall and another league receiver this morning who have never even played with Jameis and raved about him. You’re the only one with doubt about Jameis here. And yes if someone has a stupid opinion we can call it just that. You’re trying to be the smartest guy in the room again… Read more »
Nah. When people say something stupid, it’s fair game for me to call it stupid. Also, you say people who actually follow the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who know that the contract offered to Glennon has nothing to do with Winton, are suppose to be cool with people around the NFL being wrong about such perception… Why? If you say something that’s not true, why would me or anyone else have to accept that? All I did here was point out his first comment being ignorant. I didn’t call Winton the greatest of all time. I didn’t say he was the… Read more »
You are right on TS. Thank God Chris Carter was on the panel. I think Chris likes Jameis.
GO BUCS
Well, you’re wrong. His comment is a matter of his professional opinion, it was not idiotic, it was not dumb, it was not hateful. Probably wrong, but that’s a matter of opinion, not established fact. Bucs homers need to grow up. The NFL is not in love with our team or our quarterback. You’ll all note that last year practically all the “experts” and prognosticators in the league projected the Bucs to finish in the basement of the NFC South yet again, and to end up in the bottom four or six teams in the league. They were wrong, but… Read more »
His comment’s were not hateful, but they were definitely idiotic and dumb. He believes that the Bucs are willing to give Glennon more money then they are paying Winton because they have trepidations about Winston. If he is going to gove a professional opinion, he should be able to back it up with facts. When the Bucs strat acting like Winston is Josh Freeman, then maybe his comments won’t be so idiotic. The offer to Glennon has more to do with Glennon being the best abck up QB in the league and the Bucs knowing how important a good back… Read more »
” well you’re wrong” strong argument there. If we don’t agree with you we’re clearly all wrong here. Or maybe just maybe… dare I say it, you’re wrong?
“The reality i, outside of us Bucs homers, the general league wide opinion of Jameis Winston isn’t all that high.” Clearly, you must only be watching ESPN, because that sure isn’t the talk on the NFL Network, PFT, or even on many NFL websites and blogs. There is nothing but talk about how out of all the young QB’s who have came into the the league over the last five years, Jameis has the most upside, and promise out of all of them. Lets face it, Winston has one main problem, and it’s not his emotions when playing, it’s his… Read more »
Pray tell, how many articles or posts anywhere in the world of sports journalism today are projecting Jameis Winston to enter the elite top five quarterbacks in the league this season? Zero so far from what I have read. Most of the commentary is along the lines that Jameis needs to clean up some stuff, such as his excessive emotionalism (as Wilcox said here), and that Jameis needs some weapons to improve his accuracy on longer balls. Which comes nowhere near to predictions of greatness. I’m fairly confident that Jameis will over-perform their expectations and start being part of discussions… Read more »
Please tell us where anyone has said he’s elite? You’re looking for an argument that isn’t even there. This article isn’t about Jameis being elected yet you can’t stop mentioning it. No qb in year 3 is elite so stop berating that stupid point.
Read any article about players and their interaction with Jameis and none of them think like you.
Please post that articles you read speaking otherwise or stop trying to force a point that’s not there.
You’re trying so hard to say you’re right you’re not even staying on topic here.
Uh mm… Nobody said anything about “elite.” Maybe that’s why your having such a hard time finding articles relating to the subject.
Naples. Today I disagree. Of course he has a right to his opinion. Of course he can say anything he wants
But, you know there’s a but, he had no basis for an idiotic statement like that. Where is he getting his info? Mark Levin? Or is he just making s**t up.
See Scott no profanity.
GO BUCS
I did miss it; and I think a lot of people missed it, because whoever that guy is; he is irrelevant. I wish Glennon well and hope that the Bucs pick up a 3rd round compensatory pick for him next year. I also hope that the Bucs draft a rookie QB this year as well.
Well said Trevor.
If Winston is a franchise quarterback, why should he accept Glennon making more money than him? Winston should hold out until his contract is renegotiated if Glennon takes the Bucs’ offer. Your examples about New England and Denver are irrelevant because Jimmy Garappolo is not making more money than Tom Brady, and Blake Osweiler did not make more money than Peyton Manning in Manning’s last year with the Broncos. I also don’t think Glennon is the best backup QB in the NFL. Glennon better than Tony Romo-don’t think so. Glennon better than Jay Cutler – no. I would take Colin… Read more »
but Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were not still on their rookie deals. The rookie contracts fro players are pretty much set in stone based off where they are taken, and the position they play. The Bucs trying to make Glennon the highest paid back up has nothing to do with the Winston, and more to do with the Bucs seeing Glennon as the best back up QB currently available.
It has everything to do with Winston because Winston could have been the second highest paid quarterback on the roster. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t play for the Bucs and he made mention of his contract compared to what Glennon was going to make going to the Bears. All I know is Winston should demand a restructured contract after next season and hold out if the Bucs don’t give him one.
Sadly, FS1 is importing the idiots from the BSPN. These talking heads are a lot like bloggers, they make outrageous statements in order to get attention (aka ratings). Again, this is why I get my Buccaneers news from PR. Awesome analysis and reporting. Go Bucs!
Yes, a Cowherd typically takes a negative slant towards the Bucs. Guessing he holds some type of grudge from his local beat writer days. Probably some member or the organization treated him like the bonehead he is.
Gee Naples, I know “I’m full of myself”, but as usual, when someone has a different opinion than yours, you get on your cyber soapbox in multiple attempts to convince others that you’re right and they’re wrong. Here you even resort to name calling (“homers”) as if to taint their opinion because it may have a hint of bias. Anyone like Whitlock, who would try to connect the dots that offering Glennon a sizeable contract, therefore means the Bucs must not be all in on Jameis, is at the very least ill-informed about Jameis’ stature at One Buc Palace. That’s… Read more »