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Jameis Winston is an Elite Prospect, Must Be First Pick in 2015 NFL Draft

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Jameis Winston

USA TODAY Sports-Trevor Ruszkowski

Jameis Winston is not a perfect NFL prospect. He doesn’t have the acuity of Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning, the leadership skills of Tom Brady, or the ability to say all the right things at all the right times like Russell Wilson. He doesn’t possess every quality you’d want in a quarterback mostly because off the field, he’s a franchise’s worst nightmare. Even with these negatives, Winston is an elite prospect, an incredible talent, and the player the Tampa Bay Buccaneers absolutely must select with the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft on April 30.

Pretend you’re the owner or general manager of a struggling NFL team. I know you’ve done it many times before; I just ask you pretend once more. The NFL Draft is approaching and you have the first pick. You play in a city that needs a star and needs a spark to get your franchise going and get people excited to talk about your team. There are two great quarterbacks available for you to build your team around. Neither player is a sure bet to become an All-Pro for the next decade, but for very different reasons.

One of the prospects is by all means a fantastic player, and off the field has nary a single concern, but it might take him a few years to reach greatness and it’s questionable if he ever will become a truly elite player. The other prospect possesses just about every tool at an elite level, should come in and play at a high level right away, but has serious character concerns and red flags howling in the wind all around him. For all you know, he could be out of the league in a couple of years. So which player should you take? Do you go the safe route or do you take the risk?

If you’re me, you take the risk, go for the home run, and select the second prospect — Jameis Winston. The 2013 Heisman Trophy winner comes with very real baggage. Trust me, I’m very aware that “baggage” in this case is a euphemism for sexual-assault allegations plus more than few minor transgressions. But when I have the first pick and I’m trying to build the best roster in the NFL, I go for it on fourth and long and select the best player in the draft.

We’ll find out on April 30 exactly how Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht feels about Winston after his team makes the pick. It already looks like he’s begun to set the table for having to answer to the scrutiny and questions sure to follow should he decide to hand the keys to the franchise over to Winston. “Bad guy or immaturity?” Licht said in an interview with Peter King just two days ago. “I’m leaning towards the latter.”

The Buccaneers intend to spend 30 hours of “alone time” with both Winston and Marcus Mariota – the safer pick. For Tampa Bay to select Winston with that first pick, their investigation into his background and troubling past must come back clean, relatively speaking. His problems over the last couple of years need to simply have been a result of immaturity from a man who rose to fame at such a young age. If anything comes back that signals Winston’s good guy act at the combine this past weekend was in fact, an act, then absolutely I agree they should pass on him. Unless they unearth some truly disturbing information between now and the draft, I don’t see how they could pass on him.

When asked if he was ready for the intrusive questions and background check from teams that he’ll face all the way up until the draft and probably even after, Winston told King, “I love it. I welcome it. They’re really going to find out the type of person I am. Character is not about what you do when you’re around people. Character is what you show when no one is looking. I believe if they do a hard, hard investigation into Jameis the person, they will find out that I’m a good guy.”

If indeed he is a “good guy” like he claims, Winston’s simply too good of a prospect for the Buccaneers not to take. One unnamed NFL general manager agrees and was quoted saying, “The kid is great on the (grease) board, and he can sling the hell out of the ball. I don’t see how they can not take him.”

Winston’s been described as having a Peyton Manning-level football IQ, and outside of possessing blazing straight-ahead speed, there’s nothing he doesn’t excel at. He’s made his mistakes, but simply elite as a football player, Jameis Winston has to and will be the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.

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