Jameis Winston would love to play with DeSean Jackson

Well, that didn’t take long. A day after ESPN’s Josina Anderson reported that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a ‘possible destination’ for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jameis Winston came out and endorsed that move, saying he’d love to play with DeSean Jackson.

Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times has the quote and context, as Winston spoke to students at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg.

"I've met him before, and we want DeSean. You better believe we want DeSean here," Winston said. "I think he would be a great asset to our team. Me growing up an Eagles fan, seeing what he did for the Eagles and back in his Cal days and even with the Redskins, I would love to have DeSean."

That’s an interesting comment, given a general NFL player tendency to shut up about other players and say “it’s not up to me” whenever asked about anyone possibly joining the team. There’s some enthusiasm for Jackson in the building.

Of course, Jameis Winston tends to be a little (over)enthusiastic when talking about other players publicly, and he doesn’t actually set the team’s personnel strategy. If the Bucs were to sign every player Winston would love to have, they’d have a 350 player locker room — so perhaps take all of this is with a grain or twenty of salt.

We should also note that Winston more or less debunked the notion that there’s a relevant “existing rapport” with Jackson, as Anderson put it in her report. Winston told students that he didn’t remember when he’d met Jackson, and players don’t exactly get signed because of a random meeting with a quarterback ages ago.