On Monday, Buccaneers HC Dirk Koetter announced that Jameis Winston will start for them at quarterback against the Falcons in Week 6.
“Jameis Winston is a guy who will be here way longer than I will and he needs to be playing,” Koetter said, per Rick Stroud.
Ryan Fitzpatrick performed well to open the season, but wasn’t as good the past two games.
The Buccaneers are on bye this week, so they’ll have some extra time to get Winston ready for their matchup with Atlanta.
Winston finished Sunday’s game completing 16 of 20 pass attempts (80 percent) for 145 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Winston, 24, is a former first-round pick of the Buccaneers back in 2015. He’s set to make a base salary of $705,000 for the 2018 season and will earn $20.922 million for the 2019 season under his fifth-year option.
In 2017, Winston appeared in 13 games for the Buccaneers and threw for 3,504 yards while completing 63.8 percent of his passes to go along with 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also rushed for 135 yards and a touchdown. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 16 quarterback out of 39 qualifying players.
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