Could Matt Nagy Be Jameis Winston's Ticket to Success?
The availability of Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston seems possible now when it didn't only a few days ago.
ESPN's Jenna Laine reported earlier this week the Bucs interest in Philip Rivers "is legitimate" after the announcement by the Los Angeles Chargers they had parted ways with the veteran quarterback.
If the Bucs would want Rivers, they obviously would not be looking to retain Winston and he would go into the unrestricted free agent market.
What would happen then would be anyone's guess, sort of like what happens when Winston lines up at quarterback. You can get the big play one way or the big play the other way.
Whether the Bears would be interested in Winston would likely depend on money and also, more than anything else, whether coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace thought they could mold him into a quarterback rather than a guy who flings the ball all over the place without regard for turnovers.
Winston does have some experience with run-pass option in the Bucs attack. Coach Bruce Arians used some last year in his offense. This would definitely be of benefit in Chicago.
In his five Tampa Bay seasons, Winston has played in a Don Coryell style offense and not the West Coast attack. Even under Lovie Smith in his rookie season this was the case because Smith's offensive coordinator was Dirk Koetter, who later became head coach. And Koetter ran the same general style of offense as Arians.
The idea of their offense is attacking vertically while Nagy's West Coast style is an offense attacking more laterally to set up the defense for bigger strikes downfield.
Perhaps a different approach would benefit Winston in a few ways because the 33-touchdown, 30-interception season he had last year would be Chicago Bears records each way, one good, one not so good.
If any team could exorcise the interceptions from Winston, it's the Bears and Nagy. Winston would have to contend with an entire village of coaches handling him, from new offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo to passing game coordinator Dave Ragone in addition to Nagy.
In two seasons, Nagy brought Mitchell Trubisky's interception rate down to the low rate of 1.9%.
Nagy and other coaches with Kansas City worked with Alex Smith after he came to the Chiefs in their style of West Coast offense and cut Smith's interception average from 2.9% for seven years with the 49ers to 1.4% for five years in Kansas City.
What the Bears wouldn't want to do is bring down Winston's ability to complete passes downfield. His yards per pass attempt have been at 8.2 last year and 7.9 the previous two seasons, which is excellent.
On Winston's side is the fact he has already shown he can cut back the interceptions. He was at 11 in 2017, which was 2.5% of his throws. Winston was also able to get his passer rating up that year as a result of throwing fewer interceptions. So it can be done.
In fact, it would be easier to make Winston into a quarterback who can be successful than it would be to succeed with Trubisky because Winston has already shown he can cut back interceptions and has maintained that quality of being a deep passer thoughout his career. Trubisky still hasn't shown he can throw accurate deep passes and no one can be certain he ever will.
As a result, it would be foolish for the Bears not to have an interest in Winston if the Bucs were able to sign Rivers and decided not to pursue their No. 1 pick from the 2015 draft.
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