Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 11-6-18

Sports
Winston's $20.9M Contract Option Won't Impact Playing Time With Bucs
Bucs Sticking With Ryan
Tampa Bay Buccaneers sources insist quarterback Jameis Winston's $20.9 million fifth-year option will have no bearing on whether he plays again this season. Win- ston stated ''it's a minor set- back for a major comeback. It just tells you that you've got to continue to get better. I've never been in this situation be- fore, so I have to learn from it and I have to grow from it. I have no choice."
Tampa Bay was one game behind in the NFC's wild-card chase, and they did what's best at the quarterback position, without being concerned about any potential injury for Winston that would guaran- tee the $20.9 million on his contract for next season, sources said. Winston was benched last week after throw- ing four interceptions against the Cincinnati Bengals, and Ryan Fitzpatrick was in- serted back in the starting lineup for Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers. The Bucs lost the game, 42-28.
Buccaneers officials con- tinued to insist last week that they are far more concerned about making the playoffs than Winston's fifth-year op- tion. In four games and three starts this year, Winston has thrown 10 interceptions. The Bucs (3-5) are 1-2 in games he has started in 2018.
Jameis Winston Being Ensnared By Curse Of Doug Williams
As early as last year, it seemed that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally had some- thing different in Jameis Winston.
After being in-want of a true franchise quarterback for the longest time, it appeared that the No. 1-overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft finally gave Tampa Bay what they had long coveted. A Heisman Trophy winner at Florida State, Winston instantly im- proved the Buccaneers in his first season on his way to a Pro Bowl nod, and in 2016 led them to a winning season and the doorstep of the playoffs. As his formative years pro- gressed, Winston looked to be the rising tide that lifted all ships in Tampa Bay.
But now, Winston has found that his star with the Buccaneers has faded. After being suspended three games to begin the 2018 season due to an off-field incident with a female Uber driver, Winston
nasty, becoming a perennial All-Pro, the MVP of Super Bowl XXIX, and a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
After washing their hands of Young, the Buccaneers took quarterback Vinny Tes- taverde with the No. 1-over- all pick in the 1987 Draft. Struggling mightily in his first several seasons, Testaverde found both his abilities and his overall intelligence widely mocked and he bolted to go on to become a All- Pro with the New York Jets.
The list goes beyond Young and Testaverde. The Buccaneers have drafted 25 quarterbacks in their history, and not a single one has made it to their second contract. Trent Dilfer. Josh Free- man. Mike Glennon. And so forth and so forth and so forth.
For his part, Williams has long denied that his "Curse" actually exists.
Saints' Michael Thomas Does The Joe Horn Phone Celebration
MICHAEL THOMAS
Michael Thomas did his best Joe Horn impression after scoring a huge touch- down in the New Orleans Saints’ win over the Los Ange- les Rams on Sunday.
Thomas caught a 72-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to make it 41-35 late in the fourth quarter. After scor- ing, he lifted up the pad pro- tecting the goal post and located a cell phone. He pre- tended to dial a call, just like Horn did with the Saints 15 years ago.
Thomas was actually pe- nalized 15 yards for the cele- bration.
Thomas was a monster in the game, catching 12 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown. Now everyone will remember him thanks to the celebration.
QB Despite Being 2-3
JAMEIS WINSTON
became embroiled in a quar- terback controversy with his backup, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who became a national sensa- tion playing in relief of Win- ston. Once hailed as the long-sought answer to the Buccaneers' historic issues under center, Winston has found himself being slammed non-stop: With the media questioning if he has a place on the Buccaneers anymore, and his coaching staff, team- mates and fans seeming to have placed their confidence in Fitzpatrick instead of him.
Although the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been an NFL franchise for over 40 years, they hold a dubious distinc- tion in the fact that they have never signed a single quarter- back they have drafted to a second contract. If this were simply the failure of the Buc- caneers to identify talent at the position, it would be one thing. But given that they spurned the very first true franchise quarterback that they found, it is quite another: It is some- thing that has become known to those around Tampa Bay as the Curse of Doug Williams.
Williams should have been in-line for a payday suit- able for one of the NFL's top quarterbacks of the 1980s. However, Williams ended up in a contract dispute after the 1982 season with Buccaneers founding owner Hugh Cul- verhouse. That dispute re- sulted in Williams bolting for the upstart USFL, where he would play for the Oklahoma & Arizona Outlaws for two years before the league folded. He would go on to make NFL history when he won Super Bowl XXII and was named the game's MVP.
Particularly disturbing - and curse-like - is the caliber of quarterbacks that the Buc- caneers have drafted but failed to sign to a second contract. Steve Young was declared a bust after going 3-16 as a starter in Tampa Bay, and the Buccaneers traded him to the San Francisco 49ers in 1987. Young ended up becoming one of the greatest players of the 49ers' long-standing dy-
Despite a 42-28 loss to the Carolina Panthers and 2-3 as a starter, the Tampa Bay Bucca- neers will have Ryan Fitz- patrick starting at quarterback for at least an- other week, against the Wash- ington Redskins, coach Dirk Koetter announced Sunday.
The Buccaneers benched Jameis Winston after a dis- mal four-interception perform- ance against the Cincinnati Bengals last week, opting to go with Fitzpatrick against the Panthers and then reassess.
Fitzpatrick rallied the Buccaneers from a 35-7 deficit, completing 24 of 40 passes for
RYAN FITZPATRICK
243 yards and four touch- downs to make it 35-28 and a one-score game in the fourth quarter.
Well, at least the media and Buccaneers organization don't have the luxury of blam- ing Jameis Winston for the loss.
Fitzpatrick As Starting
Cam Newton Should Be Among Front-Runners At QB In MVP Race
Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera insists it's too early to compare quarterback Cam Newton’s NFL MVP season of 2015 to his current one after only seven games.
No offense, Coach, but it's not.
Newton, 29, is off to the best start of his career under new offensive coordinator Norv Turner. What the QB has done during a 5-2 start should have him among the front-runners for this year's NFL MVP award -- even if the oddsmakers don't agree.
Newton
ranks sixth among quar- terbacks and seventh over- all with 20-1 odds to win the MVP award.
Statisti- cally, what Newton has done in the pass- ing and running games should have him higher on the list. His combined 17 touchdowns -- 13 passing and four rushing --
rank him third.
CAM NEWTON
Le'Veon Bell Has Lost $7.7M – And Counting
It’s something how Le’Veon Bell keeps moving up in the Steelers record books without playing a snap this season.
Just over the past few days, he rose to No. 2. Bell now is the second-longest holdout in Steelers history, at least back to the start of the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
Linebacker Mike Merri- weather was the longest hold- out in Steelers history when he boycotted the entire 1988 sea- son because he was unhappy with his contract.
Instead, it’s been bye-bye, Bell, for the first nine weeks of the season. The next important date on the Le’Veon Watch is Nov. 13. If he does not report and sign his franchise tag by 4 p.m. that day, he cannot play at all this season for anyone, and the Steelers will recoup the en- tire $14.544 million they had
to count under their salary cap for him this year.
As it is, they’ve saved plenty of his salary and cap space for 2018 they can use in 2019. With every week since the start of the regular season, Bell’s weekly salary of $855,529 (rounding the cents) goes back to the Steelers under their cap, and that can roll over into next
season.
To date, counting this
week, that comes to $7,699,764 the Steelers have gotten back under their cap. If Bell waits until after 10 weeks, it will have cost him $8,555,294 and he would be paid $5,988,806 for the rest of the season.
LE’VEON BELL
PAGE 14 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 , 2018