Buccaneers may sit Jameis Winston if he can’t practice

Jameis Winston may have to miss the first game of his career. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are considering sitting the quarterback for the game against the New Orleans Saints if he can’t participate in practice this week, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The Bucs quarterback suffered a shoulder injury three weeks ago, and has played through it for the past two games while missing the first two practices prior to each game. That, apparently, is no longer a workable strategy for the Bucs, who saw Winston put up one of the worst and one of the best performances of his career in the past two weeks.

The fact that Winston got hit a few times in each game and apparently aggravated his injury in both, according to Dirk Koetter, will probably play a role in this decision, too.

If Winston can’t go, the Bucs will have to give the start to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Which is not exactly a recipe for success. I’d say that this would be disastrous for the Bucs’ playoff hopes but eh, those are pretty much dead anyway.

Of course, the Bucs may change their minds once they get closer to game time. Certainly Winston will not want to sit out a game, and Dirk Koetter and company may not want to risk their jobs by losing too many games, either.