Being shown the door by his original team did not at all diminish Jameis Winston’s confidence.
This offseason marked the end of Winston’s tenure with the Buccaneers, who selected the quarterback No. 1 overall in the 2015 NFL Draft. Tampa Bay replaced the 26-year-old Winston with a soon-to-be-43-year-old Tom Brady, who signed a reported two-year deal with the team.
One has to imagine inconsistency was a leading factor in the Bucs moving on from Winston, who has a propensity for turning the ball over. Despite these glaring flaws in his game, Winston still believes he’s among the best to ever play the position.
“I know what I’m worth,” Winston said in an interview with Bleacher Report. “And I know day in and day out, without publicly coming in and saying it, that historically I’m one of the best quarterbacks to play the game.”
Winston certainly is coming off a historic season. He became the first member of the NFL’s “30-30 club,” as his 33 touchdown passes in 2019 were met with 30 (!) interceptions. Winston’s 30th pick came on his final pass of the season, which locked Tampa Bay into a 7-9 campaign. The Bucs only once posted an above-.500 regular-season record — 9-7 in 2016 — over the course of Winston’s five-year tenure in Central Florida.
The 2013 Heisman Trophy winner, of course, has a long way to go before he’s even mentioned in the conversation of the NFL’s best signal-callers. Perhaps spending a year learning under Drew Brees in New Orleans will speed up that process for Winston.
