To the surprise of no one, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers excercised the fifth-year option on quarterback Jameis Winston, securing his services through the 2019 season, as first reported by the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud.
#Bucs have picked up the fifth year option of $20.922-million for QB Jameis Winston. Guaranteed against injury.
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) April 17, 2018
I almost didn’t post this because really – is this news? Of course the Buccaneers were going to exercise the option. It would honestly only been news if they inexplicably did not. This was a no-brainer move that was bound to happen and Winston will be happy as he is guaranteed a $20.9 million dollars for the 2019 season, if the Bucs don’t extend him before then and make him even a richer young man.
Yes, Winston has had his struggles, but he’s also one of only two quarterbacks in NFL History to throw for 4,000 yds in each of his first two seasons. Winston, 18-27 as a starter, has thrown for 11,636 yds, 69 touchdowns and 44 interceptions in his 3-year NFL career. In addition, his rushed for 8 touchdowns. Winston is still very young by NFL standards at 24 years of age. He’s younger than Carson Wentz and is just a year older that one of this year’s top QB prospects, Baker Mayfield, as well as last year’s top rated rookie QB Mitch Trubisky.
In an injury-riddled third season, Winston posted career highs in completion percentage, yards per game and had a career high 92.2 QB Rating.
Of course, as everyone already knows, he’s also under league investigation for an alleged incident involving a female Uber driver. The Bucs apparently aren’t too worried about that. Winston will become a father in July and he has been a fixture in charitable endeavours throughout the Tampa Bay community.
Tampa Bay basically re-affirmed it’s commitment to Jameis Winston and the Bucs will continue to focus on improving the franchise around him. Anyone who doubted this would happen just hasn’t been paying attention.
J.C. De La Torre
Want to give JC a piece of your mind? E-mail him at JC@whatthebuc.net JC De La Torre is formerly a columnist/blogger for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers blog site BucsNation.com where in 2016, he was nominated as best sportswriter in Tampa Bay by Creative Loafing. Previously, he served as a featured columnist for Bleacher Report on Tampa Bay sports, an editor and featured columnist for SB Nation Tampa Bay covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Gators, wrote for NFL.com’s Blog Blitz and contributed to Pewter Report, one of the top magazines on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. JC is also a filmmaker, comic writer and rabid Whovian.
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