When I watched Florida State and Oregon do battle in the 2015 Rose Bowl, I was still unsure who was a better quarterback between Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. In my mind, I felt Jameis was the better QB, but watching Heisman Mariota's stat-stuffing campaign this year was tough to overlook. Was Mariota really that good? Was Winston's knucklehead tendencies a bigger deal than I thought? So many questions, not enough answers...
...and then I watched the Rose Bowl.
You all know what happened, Oregon scraped Florida State 59-20 and the Ducks took their talents to the National Championship.
Except, the game actually confirmed my beliefs about Winston and still left my judgment cloudy on Mariota. It seems crazy even now thinking about it, since Mariota's squad won by 39 points, but I knew what I saw with my eyes. I'm no football scout, but I like to think I know what I'm talking about with the game of football. Here's what I tweeted a few months back.
Florida State’s skill players lost this game tonight. 3 fumbles. Tons of dropped passes. Not much more to say.
— Eddie Maisonet, III (@edthesportsfan) January 2, 2015
If you blame Jameis for this game, I’m gonna assume you don’t know sh*t about football. Blame FSU’s defensive coordinators + skill players. — Eddie Maisonet, III (@edthesportsfan) January 2, 2015
From a pure QB perspective, you could make the case that Jameis played better than Mariota.
— Eddie Maisonet, III (@edthesportsfan) January 2, 2015
Of course, since this is Twitter, I was immediately met with ridicule and slander. People said I'd need "Johnnie Cochran" to prove my point and that I'd clearly drank way too many Miller Lites. (No offense to Miller, but I'm way too bougie to be drinking the dirty dish water that is "lite beer". Pass me a Belgian ale please, thanks.)
What I saw from Winston was simple. He read the defense like an NFL quarterback. He was patient. He made few mistakes (outside of that hideous fumble) and was poised throughout the game. What I saw from Mariota was contrived, manufactured offense. Mariota was asked to hit wide open receivers in particular spots. That's not Mariota's fault, it's just two players under different circumstances. More praise for Winston, not a shot at Mariota at all.
The problem is, who am I? I'm just a quasi-professional journalist/basement living blogger that spews slightly well thought out opinions from time to time. If only there was someone who could break down game film and explain what I saw...
Per the folks over at Tomahawk Nation, here's an excellent breakdown of Jameis Winston that showed everything an NFL team would need to see in deciding whether Famous Jameis could slang the pill in the NFL. Shoutout to the longtime TSFJ supporter Keith Tolbert for the hat tip on this video, props to Brett Kollman for his work here, and if you have 10 minutes to spare (it's Friday, of course you do) then watch this brilliance.
In the interest of equal opportunity, here's Kollman breaking down Mariota in the same game.
Just realize that some scouts think Winston's football IQ is on par with Peyton Manning, while other scouts think Mariota might not be the "alpha male" that's necessary to lead a NFL team. The 2015 NFL Draft is just 54 days away, and I'm pretty certain Jameis Winston's name will be called before Marcus Mariota's, regardless of where Mel Kiper has him on his big board that doesn't exist in real life.
Eddie Maisonet is the founder and editor emeritus of The Sports Fan Journal. Currently, he serves as an associate editor for ESPN.com. He is an unabashed Russell Westbrook and Barry Switzer apologist, owns over 100 fitteds and snapbacks, and lives by Reggie Jackson’s famous quote, “I am the straw that stirs the drink.”
