Rookie quarterbacks are inconsistent. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers knew this going in to the Jameis Winston experience, and that’s what they’ve been getting so far in preseason.
The Buccaneers lost 31-7 to the Cleveland Browns in their third preseason game, and struggled against a quarterback that started for them last season only to be released after just one year. Josh McCown, the starter now for the Browns, completed 17-of-23 passes for 117 yards and a couple of touchdown passes.
The Buccaneers’ bigger problems were holding back the Browns defense, which was at its healthiest since the beginning of preseason. Winston played one drive into the second half, but managed to finish with just 90 yards and completing 40% of his passes.
He was intercepted once and sacked four times in what should be his final appearance before the regular season begins. Mike Glennon, completing 6-of-13 for 64 yards, didn’t look much better in his place.
Winston did make a 26-yard pass to Vincent Jackson, part of a drive that ended with Doug Martin rushing for 19 yards to score the touchdown. Besides that play Martin didn’t get much, finishing with 40 yards on nine carries (21 yards on 8 tries besides his touchdown run).
This wasn’t a step back for Winston, this was simply a bad game from the entire team, and Winston needs more experience in the NFL to be able to ignore the overall ability around him and lift his team according to his performance, not let the team drag him down.