Jameis Winston was the first overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and he's started every game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the last two seasons. The former Heisman Trophy winner has also lived up to the franchise-quarterback hype, which is a 50/50 proposition for passers taken in the first round. He's twice thrown for more than 4,000 yards, has thrown 50 touchdowns against 33 interceptions and has completed nearly 60 percent of his passes.
In advanced stats terms, Winston ranked 16th among all quarterbacks during his 2015 rookie season, according to Football Outsiders, and was 15th last season. The plan is to to keep improving until he's the best ever.
"[I want to] be better than last year," Winston told NFL Network on Tuesday. "And after that, be better the next year. Ultimately, I want to be the greatest of all time one day. That has to be your goal. People always say, 'Well that'll never happen.' but I don't know it'll never happen until I'm done. So I'm going to do anything that I can to be great."
Helping Winton achieve his dream will be a new high-powered offense that came together this offseason with the addition of free-agent wide receiver DeSean Jackson and rookie tight end O.J. Howard, the Bucs' first-round pick. They'll join Mike Evans, Cameron Brate and Doug Martin along with third-round speedster Chris Godwin.
"They're dynamic," Winston said of Jackson and Howard. "We haven't had a true deep-threat guy at Tampa Bay and now we have DeSean so we're excited to throw him a couple bombs. And O.J., man, he's just a specimen -- we're privileged to have O.J. Howard. You know, we have a bunch of great guys on this football team with one of the best receivers in the league, Mike Evans, and one of the best tight ends in Cam Brate. So we're just trying to find a way to execute and I just have to find a way to spread that ball around."
The Bucs' offense ranked 17th in the league in 2015, Lovie Smith's last year as coach. Under Dirk Koetter, the unit was 18th, though the passing game improved from 17th to 11th -- and the expectation is that it will be a top-10 group in 2017.
