The big message that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coaching staff gave to quarterback Jameis Winston when he returned to the facility this offseason had nothing to do with cutting down on turnovers or throwing more touchdowns in the red zone.
Those are unquestionably areas where he has to improve,nfl jerseys free shipping but the real message the coaches wanted to impart entering his fourth year, as offensive coordinator Todd Monken put it: “Stop trying so hard.”
They could see it in his performance on the field, but they could also really see it in the locker room with how he tried to lead his teammates.
“I think the best way to put it is, in our league, there’s so much pressure put on coaches and [on] that [quarterback] position,” said Monken, now in his third year with the Bucs. “Nobody gets the credit either way, winning or losing, [more] than the quarterback or the coaches. That’s fine. That’s the way it is.
“No one is going to blame [wideout] Mike Evans for why we haven’t made the playoffs; they’ve got the quarterback in there, and that’s part of it. We get that. That doesn’t mean we don’t all own it. But I think the biggest thing is, ‘OK, Jameis, it’s OK to be yourself. You don’t have to try so hard. The guys know you are naturally our leader.’
“But at times, it’s hard. It’s hard when you’re hurt. It’s hard when you’re not winning the way you want and you’re trying so hard to get the guys because [you] want to win so bad — we all do. I try too hard sometimes, because I want it so bad.”
Winston suffered a sprained acromioclavicular joint (AC joint) in the throwing shoulder of his right arm in Week 3 last season against the Minnesota Vikings. He didn’t appear on the injury report until Week 7, after he left a game against the Arizona Cardinals with the injury, but sources close to him have said the injury initially occurred against the Vikings. It forced him to miss three games, and in the games he did try to play, it impacted his velocity and accuracy downfield.
Dealing with the injury during the first of two five-game losing streaks, cheap nfl jerseys authentic Winston was still trying to give some of his “rah-rah” pregame speeches, like the one in Week 9 before the Bucs played the New Orleans Saints about “eating W’s.” Winston stuck his fingers in his mouth to form the shape of a W and asked teammates, “How many of you want to eat a W tonight? How many of you want to eat a W?”
After having lost four games in a row, the response from teammates caught on camera was less than enthusiastic — as it appeared Winston was acting more like the Bucs were riding a four-game win streak — and the quarterback was widely criticized in the media for appearing out of touch. Wide receiver DeSean Jackson empathized with Winston.