Dirk Koetter and Jameis Winston are a perfect fit

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Dirk Koetter as their head coach for one reason: he did a terrific job with Jameis Winston as a rookie, producing a competent offense that fit the young quarterback's strengths. The Bucs want to keep that together for the long term, to the extent that they may have fired Lovie Smith just to keep Koetter in Tampa. It's no surprise, then, that when Andy Benoit reviewed the Bucs' 2016 play, he came to the conclusion that WInston and Koetter are ideal fits -- among nine other observations.

Dirk Koetter's system fits Winston as well as any NFL system fits its quarterback. Even if Winston tightens his mechanics, he'll never be a quick-twitch thrower. Koetter knows that. And so the Bucs' passing game is heavy on slower developing downfield route concepts—things like post routes, corner routes, fly patterns and deep digs. Winston's 13.0 yards per completion ranked third in the league, behind only Cam Newton and Carson Palmer. This vertical approach also fits the measured movement and big frames of wideouts Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson.

Winston has been working on speeding up his mechanics, and he'll try to make strides there, but he's not Aaron Rodgers or Dan Marino and probably never will be. That's fine: you don't need to be quick-twitch to be a very good quarterback, and he's fast enough to do all that he needs to do. That is: evade pass-rushers, and get the ball down the field.

In that sense, Benoit is absolutely right that Koetter's offense is a great fit for Winston. But Koetter also makes his offense fit his players, as we've seen when he's stopped in other places. He managed to adjust an offense to his player's strengths everywhere, except when he had Blaine Gabbert. Which, well, is probably not really his fault.