The rundown on Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston pick in 2019

It’s hard to fault Jason Licht for making this pick. There were no better options at the time — it was him or Marcus Mariota, and going with the Heisman Trophy winner was far from a bad decision. I’m not sure that Mariota would have done any better in Tampa Bay, knowing what we know now, but in hindsight, Winston’s glaring problem was evident from the jump.

In his 2014 season at FSU, Winston threw 18 interceptions in 13 games. That’s very, very bad, but he also threw 10 in 14 games in his famed 2013 season — that’s almost one per game still, which isn’t great, either. Winston was turnover-prone coming into the draft, and it was going to be up to coaching to see if the team could get that out of him. They couldn’t, and thus Tampa fans got to experience the wonders of Winston’s “30 for 30” season.

Winston still hasn’t quite caught on in New Orleans yet and has suffered some bad injuries, so it doesn’t seem as if the Bucs missed out on his lack of development. It didn’t work out in Tampa Bay, though, and the Bucs will still be searching for the franchise quarterback the team will draft as a result.