When Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians says he won't decide whether Jameis Winston is his long-term quarterback until after the 2019 season, well, he probably means it.
According to ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio, with just one game left on the regular-season schedule, Winston and the Bucs have had "no conversations, no negotiations, no discussions of any kind" about the impending free agent's plans for 2020 and beyond.
That's not necessarily unusual, as many teams wait until the offseason to engage in extension talks if a new deal isn't hammered out by earlier in the season. But it's rarer in the case of a big-name QB.
Winston, of course, hasn't been like most big-name QBs in that he's given Tampa both a lot of "really, really good" and "really, really bad," as Arians told reporters earlier this month. The former No. 1 overall draft pick has been a turnover machine in Year 5 of his much-maligned NFL career, leading the NFL with 28 interceptions -- the most thrown in a single season in almost 15 years. But he also leads the NFL by a long shot with 4,908 passing yards, he's second behind only MVP favorite Lamar Jackson with 31 passing touchdowns, and he's helped guide Tampa to a 5-2 record under Arians since mid-November.
As Florio noted, pretty much every possibility is on the table for Winston in 2020 now that he's fast approaching free agency. After a year in which he earned $20.9 million on a fifth-year option, the veteran could explore the open market, return on a franchise or transition tag, or ink a short- or long-term deal to remain in Tampa.
Winston will get one final opportunity to pad his numbers and prove to Arians and Co. he's worth a big deal on Sunday, when the Buccaneers (7-8) host their rival Atlanta Falcons (6-9).
