Look, I love Jameis like a play cousin. 2013 was my first year at FSU and was probably the greatest year of my life. I was hitting all kinds of women, had finally reached the halls of the school I was a lifelong fan of, and we won the national championship
. What a time to be alive
. I went to every home game that year, and I’m eternally grateful for that natty.
All in all, Jameis is wildly successful. He’s made multi-generational money, he’ll be able to shift into coaching or broadcasting pretty easily, and he is generally beloved. I could see him being a politician or something one day.
With that being said—at some point in his life—Jameis is going to look back on his football career and think, “What if?” He’s going to look back at his playing days and see he could’ve been wayyyyyyy more than a guy going viral for being funny. Jameis could have been the best black QB of all-time. I really believe that.
He never found that happy medium between being aggressive and protecting the ball. That comes from really understanding what’s happening before it even happens. It’s knowing where defenders are going to be before they are even there. It’s knowing when there’s going to be a chance for a chunk play because you know the defense so well, and the offense equally well. You don’t have to force the ball. You know exactly where the open guy will be based on the formation, playcall, defensive tendencies, coordinator tendencies, etc. Ultimately, it’s a byproduct of EXTREME preparation.
I wish he had really dedicated himself to the technical aspect of the game. This isn’t to say Jameis doesn’t have a high football IQ. You basically have to play quarterback in the NFL. With that being said, there’s a hierarchy. Jameis needed to be in that top tier in terms of X’s and O’s.