Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 12-27-19

Sports
Bucs Favored At Home In Week 17 Against The Atlanta Falcons Sunday
JAMEIS WINSTON AND MATT RYAN
Texans Hargreaves: 'It Feels Great' To Beat Ex-Team, The Buccaneers
VERNON HARGREAVES
He won’t say it, but the Houston Texans’ victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday had a hint of retri- bution for cornerback Ver- non Hargreaves.
A Tampa native, the Bucs made Hargreaves a first- round pick (No. 11) out of the University of Florida in 2016. Three years later, on Nov. 12, they benched him — citing a lack of “hustle” — and then re- leased him. The Texans picked him up off waivers.
The 24-year-old now- Houston resident was glad to pick up the win over his for- mer team. He finished the game tallying three combined tackles and a tackle for loss.
“It feels great,” Harg- reaves told reporters after the win. “It feels great. It just feels better because I know those guys. I mean, I came into the league with those guys — most of those guys — and it feels good to compete against them and get that win.”
Hargreaves noted that he “started slow,” however, he made a game-defining play for the Texans late in the fourth quarter.
Bucs Are
Bringing Back QB
Jameis Winston
With a win Sunday in Week 17 against the Atlanta Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buc- caneers would finish the sea- son 8-8, something that seemed impossible just a month ago when they were 3- 7.
The Buccaneers entered 2019 having gone 5-11 the past two seasons, and after that slow start, it seemed like another 5-11 season was in the books. But, this team has turned it around over the past month, winning four- straight games prior to Satur- day’s loss to the Houston Texans.
In that game, Tampa Bay was without their top two re- ceivers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, so quarter- back Jameis Winston, who is nursing a fractured thumb, had to rely on a cast of inex- perienced receivers. The re- sults were what you’d expect as the Bucs quarterback threw four interceptions, in-
cluding another pick-six. Despite the loss, however, and absence of playmakers, the Bucs opened as -1.5 point favorites at home against the 6-9 Falcons. Tampa Bay kicked off their four-game winning-streak by beating Atlanta on the road back in
Week 12.
While the Bucs have been
a hard team to bet this year against the spread, I’d feel good about their chances in this game. Winston is going for history Sunday, and fin- ishing 8-8 would do wonders for this team’s confidence heading into the offseason.
Atlanta, meanwhile, will have to deal with the poten- tial firing of head coach Dan Quinn following Sunday’s game, so big changes could be ahead for this Falcons team. A win over the Bucs likely won’t affect Quinn’s future one way or the other, so I feel Tampa Bay has more to gain from this game.
There has been much se- crecy surrounding the im- pending decision on quarterback Jameis Win- ston. It is believed the Bucca- neers will be bringing him back but it is unclear if it’ll be on a franchise tag or a long- term deal.
The Bucs will have star quarterback Jameis Win- ston back under center for 2020 and it may come in the form of either the franchise tag or the transition tag.
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers are expected to bring back quarterbackJameis Winston for the 2020 sea- son, sources say.
But the mechanism they will use to do it remains un- decided. Either way, Win- ston is slated to get tagged in some form.
The CBA allows for teams to use both tags in the offsea- son. Referencing Tampa Bay’s pass rusher Shaquil Barrett, Rapoport says that the Bucs can use either tag on one another. The dif- ference will come in the form
JAMEIS WINSTON
of compensation if another team signs them to an offer sheet the Bucs can’t match.
Another team can sign a franchise player to an offer sheet, but must surrender two first-round picks (or work out a trade, as hap- pened last year with Dee Ford and Jadeveon Clowney).
The franchise tag for QBs is projected to be about $27 million, while the transition tag would be $25 million. For a linebacker, the franchise tag is slated to be almost $16 mil- lion, while the transition should be almost $14 million.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 13-A