Jameis Lanaed Winston is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). Born and raised in Alabama, he was a highly regarded quarterback in high school, and led his team to the state championship as a junior. Winston played college football for the Florida State Seminoles and as a Redshirt freshman became the youngest player to win the Heisman Trophy and helped lead the Seminoles to a victory in the 2014 BCS National Championship Game. In his sophomore and final year, the Seminoles advanced to the Rose Bowl, part of the College Football Playoff. Winston also played on Florida State's baseball team. Winston was drafted as the first overall pick by the Buccaneers in the 2015 NFL Draft.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Winston first overall in the 2015 NFL Draft. On May 1, 2015, Winston signed a four-year, $23.35 million contract with the Buccaneers, with a $16.7 million signing bonus. The contract prevents him from playing any other sport than football.

Winston played his first regular season game against the Tennessee Titans that featured fellow first rounder, Marcus Mariota. In the 42–14 loss, his first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by Coty Sensabaugh. Winston's interception was the first time a rookie's first pass was returned for a pick-6 since Brett Favre in 1991.

On November 22, 2015, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Winston tied an NFL rookie, and Buccaneers franchise, record with five touchdown passes.

Winston set franchise rookie records in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. Winston finished his rookie season with 4,042 passing yards, finishing 23 yards short of the franchise record set by Josh Freeman in 2012. Winston also became the third rookie quarterback to pass over 4,000 yards in a season. He was named to the NFL All-Rookie Team for his 2015 season.

Following his team's loss in the AFC Championship game, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady elected not to participate in the 2016 Pro Bowl; as a result, Winston was selected to his first Pro Bowl game making him the first rookie quarterback in Buccaneers' history to be selected.

Winston's second season in the NFL began with an impressive performance against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome, in which he completed over 70% of his throws and 4 touchdown passes in a 31–24 victory. He earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Falcons. Following Week 1, the Buccaneers began to struggle through injuries, inconsistent play, and offensive turnovers till mid-season, at which point the team was 3–5 and had experienced blow out losses to the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, and Atlanta Falcons and a 3-game losing streak. Following the loss to the Falcons, the Winston lead Buccaneers began playing efficient offense as well as exceptional defense and special teams play, resulting in the Buccaneers' first 5-game winning streak since the Super Bowl winning 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season. The win streak gave the Buccaneers possession of the 6th seed in the NFC playoff race, which they quickly lost after back-to-back losses to the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. Winston led the Buccaneers to their first winning season in 6 years after defeating the Carolina Panthers in the regular season finale, during which he broke the franchise records for passing yards and passing touchdowns in a season and became the first quarterback in NFL history to start his career with consecutive seasons of 4,000 yards passing; however the Buccaneers were eliminated from playoff contention via a tie breaker with the Detroit Lions. He was ranked 57th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017.

During Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals, Winston left the game with an apparent right shoulder injury. The next day, October 16, Winston suffered a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder, but he stated that he could play through it. During Week 9's loss to the Saints, Winston was taken out of the game with the same shoulder injury. Head coach Dirk Koetter announced the next day that he would miss at least two weeks to rest his shoulder. While on the sideline, Winston initiated an altercation with Saints rookie Marshon Lattimore, while being assisted by teammate Mike Evans, for which Winston was fined $12,154. In the game, Winston became the second-youngest player in NFL history to reach 10,000 career passing yards, four days older than record holder Drew Bledsoe. He missed the next three games due to injury and returned in Week 13. Overall, Winston and Buccaneers struggled to a 5–11 record. Winston finished the 2017 season with 3,504 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.

On April 17, 2018, the Buccaneers picked up the fifth-year option on Winston's contract. On June 21, the NFL announced that Winston would be suspended for violating the league's personal conduct policy, regarding his latest incident where he allegedly groped a female Uber driver. On June 28, the announcement was made official, giving Winston a three game suspension to begin the 2018 season.

After missing the first three games due to the suspension, Winston returned in Week 4 against the Chicago Bears, but did not start. He replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick in the third quarter, finishing with 145 passing yards, a touchdown, and 2 interceptions as the Buccaneers lost 10–48. In Week 6, against the Atlanta Falcons, he had 395 passing yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions in the 34–29 loss. In Week 8 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Winston threw for 276 yards, 1 touchdown, and 4 interceptions and he was benched in the third quarter for Ryan Fitzpatrick. In Week 11 against the New York Giants, starter Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three interceptions and was benched for Winston in the second half. Winston ended up throwing for 199 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception as the Buccaneers lost 38-35. 2 weeks later, in a 24-17 win over the Carolina Panthers, Winston completed 20 of 30 passing attempts for 249 yards and 2 touchdowns, breaking the franchise record for passing touchdowns in a career with his 81st.

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