2015 NFL Draft: The Reward of Drafting Jameis Winston
Nov 15, 2014; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston (5) passes as the Florida State Seminoles beat the Miami Hurricanes 30-26 at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports
I’ve talked about the risks of drafting a player with the kind of off the field issues like quarterback Jameis Winston. Now I’ll talk about the possible rewards of drafting Jameis Winston for the team that chooses to take him.
The Reward
Look no further than the teams in the NFC and AFC Championship games last season and you’ll find one distinct trait that each team has in common and that’s a franchise quarterback. It’s nearly impossible to win the games’ ultimate prize the Lombardi Trophy without one.
Teams that don’t have a quarterback capable of getting results on the field have virtually no shot to win a Super Bowl. Which makes a quarterback with the skills of a Jameis Winston an extremely rare commodity.
More from Riggo's Rag
- Highlighting the best Commanders 2023 NFL Draft betting props
- 3 late Commanders rumors drawing buzz ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft
- 4 bold predictions for the Commanders 2023 NFL Draft
- Commanders News: Chase Young trade, draft day, CB riser and Sam Howell
- Bet365 VA Bonus Code – Claim $200 Guaranteed With Sign-Up Bonus
There’s no guarantee that Winston will turn out to be as good as Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers or Andrew Luck. But his skill set is good enough to where a team has to be tempted to want to roll the dice on him in the 2015 NFL Draft.
Winston went 26-1 as a starter at Florida State, which even in a program with all of the talent that FSU recruits, it’s still a remarkable record. So Winston is a winner and some of those wins came with Winston leading the team from behind to victory.
Also, it’s not hard to see that Winston can consistently make NFL throws into tight windows in ways that some quarterbacks already starting in the NFL simply can’t do. And he brims with confidence. Even in the face of scandal and legal troubles, Jameis Winston did not crack under the pressure.
And I’ve mentioned some other top quarterbacks but there’s one NFL quarterback that Jameis Winston shows a lot similarities to both on and off the field, and that’s the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger, like Winston has faced allegations of sexual assault but during his NFL career. He was never charged with the crime but the allegations have still followed Roethlisberger even though he’s a two-time Super Bowl champion.
At 6’4, 230 Jameis Winston has the prototypical size like Roethlisberger to go along with the passing ability. So there is already a precedence for a player in the NFL similar to Winston who has performed at an elite level.
An Roethlisberger’s team the Steelers stood by him through the off the field scandals and he remains a top quarterback for the team to this day. He’s married with a family and seems to have matured beyond his past off the field behavior.
But Jameis Winston is not Ben Roethlisberger and he must prove that he has matured as well. There’s no guarantee that he will but it has been done successfully by another NFL quarterback before. The question is would the Steelers still have drafted Roethlisberger if they’d known what was to come?
I think they would have. Because they certainly would not have won their fifth and sixth Super Bowls without him. So if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or other teams pass on Winston based on principle, then they run the risk of not acquiring a player who could help them win.
And as we’ve seen before even through huge controversies, like the Dallas Cowboys signing defensive end Greg Hardy. In the NFL when it comes down to risk vs. reward, the risk of not winning might be the biggest risk of all.