Jameis Winston thinks that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers replacing him with Tom Brady is a compliment.
How clearly does corrective laser eye surgery help someone see? For Jameis Winston, the surgery is apparently helping him see a the world in a who new light — or something like that.
Winston currently does not have a job in the NFL. This offseason the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cut ties with their former No. 1 overall pick and signed Tom Brady to be his replacement. Winston’s years in Tampa were a total failure, beautifully illustrated by the fact that his first and last pass (and many, many in between) with the team were pick-sixes.
It’s going to be tough for Winston to rewrite his football story, and the fact that he remains unemployed is not a good omen.
Winston has a different outlook. Rather than wallow about being replaced as the Bucs starting quarterback, Winston is looking at it as a compliment that the only other guy the Bucs thought could do his job was Tom Brady.
“For you to get replaced by Tom Brady in a city that you love so much, I guess that’s kudos to me,” Winston said on Fox News.
Mental gymnastics aside, he’s not entirely wrong.
The Buccaneers didn’t have much of a plan beyond signing Brady when it came to replacing Jameis. Philip Rivers was rumored to be a target, and Cam Newton was still under contract with the Panthers. Even if Brady had decided to sign elsewhere and the Bucs had waited to see their options, just ask the Chicago Bears how hard it is to get it right. Had Tampa Bay struck out on Brady, there’s a decent chance they circled back to Winston for another year or two while grooming a rookie replacement.
So, in a very specific and narrow prism, Winston being replaced by Brady is a compliment for him. However, at some point that corrective eye surgery starts to get called into question if this is the brighter side of life Winston is looking at.