For those asking, yes, Bucs coach Lovie Smith was at Derrick Brooks charity event supporting 55.@Jaboowins playing in golf tourney Monday.
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) April 27, 2015
If quarterback prospect Jameis Winston isn’t going No. 1 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they sure are fooling me. Everything looks and sounds too much like the organization is already preparing for him to be a Buccaneer. NBC Pro Football Talk reported that Winston has been in Tampa on multiple visits for he and the community to get used to each other.
And former Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks, who offered to mentor him if the Bucs were to draft him, hosted Winston in his golf tournament and charity event Monday. Meanwhile, Bucs veterans already have some ground rules for when/if he’s drafted to the team on Thurday.
Linebacker Levonte David told the Tampa Bay Tribune that he has an idea of how things will go down.
He said, “We’ve got guys in this locker room with great character, and once he comes, if we draft him and he comes into the locker room, we have some guys, some veteran guys, that will pull him to the side and make him understand that there’s a role here he has to play, and sometimes he may have to tone that down.
“Some guys may just say, ‘Be yourself; that’s who you are, so be yourself.’ But I don’t think (he) will be a distraction or anything like that. I’m sure if he comes in, he’ll adapt to what we have going on in the locker room.”
The Bucs shouldn’t hold him back too much because what Winston brings is what makes him who he is. His coaches and his FSU teammates vouch for his leadership abilities and his cool under pressure anyway. Where Winston needs help is off the field and it looks like Brooks has that covered already.