Former Florida State Seminole and Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie quarterback Jameis Winston has yet to play in one NFL regular season game, but the reigning No. 1 overall pick is already setting high goals for himself and his likely top receiving target, second-year man Mike Evans. As was reported by Kevin Patra of NFL.com, Winston went into greater detail about what his goal for the two was, and it includes two Hall-of-Famers.
“I’m a big dreamer and I always tell Mike, ‘Mike: Joe Montana, Jerry Rice,’ just things like that, building our heads up,” Winston said, per the team’s official website. “That was one of the best duos of all time. But I love this game of football so much, so I try to relate me and a great receiver like him to other players that have done it before …”
OK, now, that’s a very respectable goal, but keep in mind that Winston is talking about the greatest wide receiver of all time and, probably, one of the Top 10 quarterbacks in NFL history.
Rice played 20 seasons in the NFL and is the all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches, and he and Montana won two Super Bowls together. Montana also won two Super Bowls without Rice, so Winston is already dreaming of putting himself in elite company.
It’s also important to note that Winston was not exactly stellar in his NFL debut last weekend. In Tampa Bay’s preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings, Winston completed 9 of 19 passes for 131 yards and an interception while rushing for 18 yards and a touchdown on four carries, and fumbled the ball once in Tampa Bay’s 26-10 loss.
Moreover, Tampa Bay is coming off of a 2-14 season and is at least two to three years away from getting anywhere close to being on the same level as those San Francisco 49ers teams on which Montana and Rice starred.
Just the same, though overly lofty, it’s good to see Winston set such high goals for himself and his teammate and with that kind of drive, his odds of succeeding in the NFL are good.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
