Jameis Winston may play through shoulder AC sprain

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got lucky with Jameis Winston’s shoulder injury, it seems: Ian Rapoport reports he has an AC joint sprain, which is what most already expected. The injury is painful, but it’s something quarterbacks can play through.

Winston suffered the injury yesterday against the Arizona Cardinals, and was able to play (poorly) for two more series before coming out of the game. He was seen warming up on the sidelines later in the game, but did not come back in. All of those things are indicators that his injury isn’t too serious.

While players can play through this injury, it does affect their accuracy and throwing motion (as we saw on Sunday). Recovery also varies, so we don’t know whether Winston will be able to play through the injury, nor how quickly—but it’s certainly possible he’ll be back on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.

One thing we can say: this injury likely won’t keep him out nor affect him in the long term. That’s the good news here, but the injury also underscores how fragile the Bucs’ successes are. They don’t have the quality or depth across the team to recover from a serious injury to Winston, either this season or in the near future. And that’s something that’ll have to change.