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Why benching Jameis Winston creates a mess for Bucs

 
Published Oct. 30, 2018|Updated Oct. 31, 2018

TAMPA — A day later and we're all still trying to make sense of the Bucs benching quarterback Jameis Winston.

What does it all say? What does it all mean?

For the Bucs. For general manager Jason Licht. For coach Dirk Koetter. For Winston.

For everyone.

First, the man who made the decision. That was Koetter.

For Koetter, at least for the moment, it's a win-win.

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If the Bucs win with Ryan Fitzpatrick, it's a smart move. If Fitzpatrick struggles, Koetter can go back to Winston and doesn't have to answer questions about why he didn't give Fitzpatrick a chance.

See, it's a win-win.

But that's just for now.

In the end, everyone is a loser in this mess.

Winston. Koetter. Licht. The Glazers. The Bucs. The Bucs fans.

Everyone.

In the end, people are going to lose jobs over this.

All because Winston has been a bust. How can you classify him as anything other than that? He was the first overall pick in the draft, the guy who was supposed to rescue the franchise. And now, in his fourth year (repeat: his fourth year), he is benched because he isn't good enough.

I don't want to hear about all the good things he does and how strong his arm is and how he is a leader. I don't want to hear how he just needs to mature and get a little more experience. Or a better line. Or a running game.

It means nothing. If he was good enough, he would be playing.

Benching your quarterback is last-resort stuff. Most benched quarterbacks never recover, at least with the franchise that benches them.

And that has left Koetter in an impossible situation.

What is best for Koetter is in direct conflict for what is best for the organization.

What is best for the organization is to keep playing Winston. You keep playing him in hopes that he improves. You keep playing him in hopes that you learn whether or not you should commit to him long-term.

What is best for Koetter is to play the guy who gives him the best chance to win this week. That is Fitzpatrick.

Koetter also owes it to the other 60-odd players and coaches on the Bucs to play the quarterback who most deserves to play. There's no way Koetter could have stood in that locker room, looked everyone in the eyes and told them that he was playing Winston because he has to do what's best for the franchise in the long-term.

Like coaches, players don't care about next season. They care about the next play.

For Licht, however, the move to Fitzpatrick is not a good thing.

He is the one who drafted Winston. In order for all this to work out for Licht, Winston needs to play and to play well to justify the pick and make a decision about the future easier.

But any scenario that doesn't include the Bucs playing well, regardless of whether it's with Fitzpatrick or Winston playing quarterback, probably means a pink slip for Licht.

What a mess.

That's the phrase that keeps coming up here. It's a complete mess and like any proper mess, it's complicated with no easy answer.

Does anyone really think Fitzpatrick is the answer? That he is going to run the table and lead the Bucs to the playoffs? I don't.

But does anyone really think Winston is going to be a franchise quarterback? That he is ever going to stop turning the ball over and become the elite quarterback the Bucs thought he would be? I don't.

So the only option that Koetter really has is to play the quarterback he thinks is better.

Koetter is the one person I actually feel sorry for in all of this.

He has waited his whole life to get an opportunity to be an NFL head coach. The only reason he got the job is because of Winston. And the reason he is going to lose it is because of Winston. Imagine finally getting the job you always wanted and when you get it, you're stuck with a turnover machine as a quarterback.

In making his decision to bench Winston, you could almost sense that Koetter is thinking, "If I'm going down, I'm not going down with him.''

Koetter has put together the most potent offense this organization has ever seen and he has done it despite a quarterback who is just as liable to throw the ball to the other team as he is to his own.

Meantime, if Fitzpatrick plays well enough to keep the job for the rest of the season, you head into the offseason with a free agent 36-year-old journeyman and a first overall bust who you can release with no salary cap consequence.

By then, you won't know who the quarterback will be next season.

And you probably won't know who the coach and the GM is either.

What a mess.

Contact Tom Jones at tjones@tampabay.com. Follow @tomwjones.