Is that this Tampa Bay’s most vital offseason for the reason that firing of Tony Dungy?

I nonetheless bear in mind it prefer it was yesterday.

I used to be in eighth grade and we had simply taken our seats in “pc class”. I can’t bear in mind the EXACT identify of the course, so simply bear with me.

Anyway, I had buccaneers.com as my pc’s dwelling web page so I may all the time be up-to-date and welcomed by no matter information that involved my favourite staff.

For sure, I used to be deeply saddened once I opened my browser the day that Tony Dungy was fired.

It was an enormous second for the Tampa Bay franchise. The coach that had taken one of many NFL’s worst franchises and made them right into a perennial playoff contender now not had a job. Extra importantly, among the best/best human beings on the planet was on the outs.

There have been a mess of potential outcomes that got here with the choice, nevertheless it was apparent that this transfer would both take the franchise to new heights or plunge it again into the depths of Soccer Hell.

As everyone knows, the Bucs traded for Jon Gruden and gained a Tremendous Bowl the next 12 months. Regardless that Gruden had simply two different playoff appearances over the subsequent six seasons (2003-2008), the choice paid off.

Now, the Bucs are confronted with one other determination that can possible decide what occurs to the franchise over the instant – and probably long-term – future, and that’s what to do with Jameis Winston.

Winston is by far and away the closest factor that the Bucs have had with regards to a franchise quarterback. The staff has been plagued and hampered by both band-aid QBs or draft picks that didn’t work out for no matter motive (see Josh Freeman and Steve Younger).

Issues are completely different with Winston, although. He has demonstrated the entire qualities that you just want in a franchise quarterback all through his profession, even with the entire back-breaking turnovers.

However the turnovers. The damned turnovers. There are simply so a lot of them and a few of them are actually, actually unhealthy. Like record-setting unhealthy.

While you add in the truth that Winston is coming into his sixth 12 months and continues to be making the identical unhealthy selections he did earlier in his profession, it’s straightforward to see why this can be a perplexing determination for Tampa Bay.

It’s not nearly Winston, although. No matter Tampa Bay decides to do with him can have ramifications not solely in 2020, however past subsequent 12 months, as effectively.

The choice is already making an affect as I write this submit. If the Bucs resolve to let him stroll or deliver him in again in any capability, it’s going to have a direct impact on Tampa Bay’s potential free brokers like Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Ndamukong Suh, Breshad Perriman, and others. How a lot the Bucs resolve to pony up – or not pony up – will predicate what occurs with these guys. The Bucs had been a 7-9 staff in 2019, however many felt as if a few extra video games may’ve been gained if it weren’t for the turnovers. Winston may doubtlessly maintain the important thing with regards to “taking the subsequent step” for this franchise, however the Bucs may lose some key gamers that contributed closely in 2019 in the event that they resolve to stay with Winston. Whereas he might maintain the important thing to enchancment, he may additionally maintain the important thing to catastrophe.

Tampa Bay may resolve to pay Winston, which can trigger them to overlook out on a possible celebrity and diamond-in-the-rough like Barrett. What if Winston doesn’t work out and Barrett goes on to have a protracted, profitable profession elsewhere? That kind of mistake may hang-out this franchise for years to come back.

What if the Bucs resolve to franchise him and he balls out? Like, let’s say he throws one other 30+ TDs and 5,000 yards, however this time he cuts the interceptions all the way down to 10-15? The Bucs will possible be paying Winston MORE in 2021 than if they only went forward and prolonged him after 2019. That situation may have a big affect with regards to what the Bucs must do in 2021 (prolong Chris Godwin, choose up OJ Howard’s fifth-year choice, and so on).

Then there’s the situation of signing Winston to a long-term deal. If the Bucs go this route, it may save them cash in the long term and there’s an opportunity that Winston sheds his turnover-prone methods and leads the Bucs to the Holy Land, however there’s additionally an opportunity that the Bucs overpay him and are caught with a ticking time bomb at quarterback for the foreseeable future. The long-term extension might handicap the staff in ways in which pressure them to stay dormant with regards to personnel strikes.

The Bucs fired Tony Dungy as a result of he “couldn’t recover from the hump within the playoffs” and employed Jon Gruden as a result of they felt like Gruden may present the spark that was wanted to recover from mentioned hump. The Bucs merely thought Gruden was definitely worth the funding, and it paid off within the brief run.

That what Tampa Bay has to do with Jameis Winston. Is he definitely worth the funding? Will he make them higher? Will the funding repay or will it flounder? What are the direct, oblique, short-term, and long-term ramifications that would play out?

No matter occurs, the result’s prone to have an enduring affect like the choice to fireside Dungy. If Tampa Bay makes the appropriate selections, then this staff is probably going proper again on monitor to creating the playoffs yearly, but when the Bucs make the fallacious selections, then they may very well be going through one other decade of futility.

The one query stays is: on which aspect of historical past will this offseason relaxation?