27 Days, 27 Picks: QB Jameis Winston
In 27 Days, 27 Picks, Bucs Wire will analyze the last 27 Tampa Bay Buccaneers first-round draft picks, one for each day leading up to the 2023 NFL draft. We’ll take a look at the player’s college stats, their pre-draft numbers (either via the NFL Combine or their Pro Day), their NFL stats, some player footage and analysis at the end on whether the pick itself was a good one.
The next pick in our 27 Days, 27 Picks series is one of the Bucs’ most famous — it was the No. 1 overall pick in 2015, and it was a quarterback. The team was hoping that Jameis Winston would be its future after his Heisman campaign at FSU, but a turnover problems prevented him for ever settling into the role in Tampa Bay.
Check out the rundown on Winston below:
College Stats
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Jameis Winston played college football at FSU. He won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, the Manning Award and the Davey O’Brien Award in 2013. He also received a first-team All-American nod in 2013. He was named the ACC Athlete of the Year in 2014.
Year | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | INT | Rush Att | Rush Yds | Rush TD |
2013 | 14 | 257 | 384 | 4057 | 40 | 10 | 88 | 219 | 4 |
2014 | 13 | 305 | 467 | 3907 | 25 | 18 | 57 | 65 | 3 |
Total | 27 | 562 | 851 | 7964 | 65 | 28 | 145 | 284 | 7 |
Pre-Draft Measurements
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Height | Weight | Arm length | Hand span | 40-yard dash | 20-yard shuttle | Three-cone drill | Vertical jump | Broad jump |
6 ft 3 3/4 in | 231 lb | 32 in | 9 3/8 in | 4.97s | 4.36s | 7.16s | 28 1/2 in | 8 ft 7 in |
Pick Selected
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Jameis Winston was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft.
Player selected before him: None
Player selected after him: QB Marcus Mariota, Tennessee Titans
NFL Stats
(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Jameis Winston has played eight seasons in the NFL. He’s played five of them for the Buccaneers and three of them for the New Orleans Saints.
Year | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | TD | INT | Sack | QBR |
2015 | TB | 16 | 312 | 535 | 58.3 | 22 | 15 | 27 | 57.2 |
2016 | TB | 16 | 345 | 567 | 60.8 | 28 | 18 | 35 | 59.5 |
2017 | TB | 13 | 242 | 442 | 63.8 | 19 | 11 | 33 | 52.1 |
2018 | TB | 11 | 244 | 378 | 64.6 | 19 | 14 | 27 | 66.2 |
2019 | TB | 16 | 380 | 626 | 60.7 | 33 | 30 | 47 | 55.7 |
2020 | NO | 4 | 7 | 11 | 63.6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12.0 |
2021 | NO | 7 | 95 | 161 | 59.0 | 14 | 3 | 11 | 69.8 |
2022 | NO | 3 | 73 | 115 | 63.5 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 32.8 |
Total | 86 | 1738 | 2835 | 61.3 | 139 | 96 | 193 |
Player Footage
Pick Analysis
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
It’s hard to fault Jason Licht for making this pick. There were no better options at the time — it was him or Marcus Mariota, and going with the Heisman Trophy winner was far from a bad decision. I’m not sure that Mariota would have done any better in Tampa Bay, knowing what we know now, but in hindsight, Winston’s glaring problem was evident from the jump.
In his 2014 season at FSU, Winston threw 18 interceptions in 13 games. That’s very, very bad, but he also threw 10 in 14 games in his famed 2013 season — that’s almost one per game still, which isn’t great, either. Winston was turnover-prone coming into the draft, and it was going to be up to coaching to see if the team could get that out of him. They couldn’t, and thus Tampa fans got to experience the wonders of Winston’s “30 for 30” season.
Winston still hasn’t quite caught on in New Orleans yet and has suffered some bad injuries, so it doesn’t seem as if the Bucs missed out on his lack of development. It didn’t work out in Tampa Bay, though, and the Bucs will still be searching for the franchise quarterback the team will draft as a result.
