Buccaneers expect Jameis Winston to play this year, just not this week

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won’t have Jameis Winston on the field this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, but at least they expect him to play at some point this season. That’s what Dirk Koetter said in his press conference today.

Winston missed the first game in his NFL career yesterday due to a shoulder injury he picked up over a month ago. Winston managed to play through that injury for three games, with increasingly worse results and repeated aggravation of that shoulder sprain.

The Bucs shut their starting quarterback down for yesterday’s game and Sunday’s, at the bare minimum—and perhaps for a significantly longer time, too. It’s not like the Bucs really have a shot at a playoff spot, anyway.

Ryan Fitzpatrick has been replacing Jameis Winston with mixed results. The Bucs did win yesterday, but Fitzpatrick was hardly a highlight and struggled to move the offense for much of the game. When Winston is ready to play again, he’ll step right back in as the team’s starting quarterback.