Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dirk Koetter knows Jameis Winston has growing to do

March 3 (UPI) -- INDIANAPOLIS -- Jameis Winston has done some amazing things both on and off the field in his first two NFL seasons. But he also has made some mistakes and the Bucs hope he learns quickly from them.

Winston is only 23 and had he remained at Florida State for his full eligibility, this would be his draft class at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Instead, he has played 32 pro games and has absorbed some hits along the way. Last week, some came from a poor choice of words while addressing elementary school students and it created a media firestorm.

"Jameis was brought here to get us in a Super Bowl and win it, not to win the oratory award of Tampa Bay,'" coach Dirk Koetter said. "But that's not him. He wants to do it. He loves being around kids and he's got a great message, an awesome message. Shoot, Jameis inspires me every day."

Winston's message to third through fifth graders at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg last week was a great one until he got off script and made some stereotypical comments that he later had to apologize for.

A male student became less than focused on him. So to get his attention, he asked all the boys to stand up.

"All my young boys, stand up; the ladies, sit down," Winston said. "But all my boys, stand up. We strong, right? We strong! We strong, right? All my boys, tell me one time: 'I can do anything I put my mind to.' Now a lot of boys aren't supposed to be soft-spoken. You know what I'm saying? One day y'all are going to have a very deep voice like this. One day, you'll have a very, very deep voice.

"But the ladies, they're supposed to be silent, polite, gentle. My men, my men (are) supposed to be strong. I want y'all to tell me what the third rule of life is: 'I can do anything I put my mind to.' Scream it!"

Koetter watched the videotape of the presentation.

"I know Jameis," Koetter said. "I could tell on his face, he got off track, he said the wrong thing. I've done it."

When Koetter watches tape of Winston playing football, he often sees him go off script. Sometimes he cringes. Most of the time it turns out OK. He doesn't want to coach that out of him.

"You can't have it both ways," Koetter said.

Koetter said the Bucs had about 90 scramble plays last season. About 10 percent of them resulted in touchdowns. Many others were explosive plays.

But there were turnovers and negative things that happened, too. The Bucs had 27 turnovers last season, far too many. Winston accounted for 21 of them (15 interceptions, 6 fumbles).

Both Super Bowl LI teams gave the football away only 11 times last season. But their quarterbacks were 39-year-old Tom Brady and 31-year-old Matt Ryan.

"Tom Brady is 39 years old and Jameis is 23 years old," Koetter said. "He's 16 years of experience behind and the best teacher in everything we do is experience."

Winston will learn from his mistakes. That's the takeaway from Koetter. The real shame would be if he stops putting himself out there and trying to be great.

"Anyone who knows Jameis Winston knows that when Jameis gets up in the morning, he's trying to do good things out there, whether it be improve himself, help our team get better or do something good in the community," Koetter said.

--Running back Doug Martin apparently is out of drug rehab, looks fit and met with coach Dirk Koetter and general manager Jason Licht in Tampa last week.

But the Bucs still aren't ready to commit to him as their running back for 2017, the clearest sign yet that they plan to find somebody else to carry the mail.

Martin was held out of the Week 16 game at New Orleans and was suspended the next four games for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing drugs. As a result, the Bucs no longer have to guarantee his $7-million salary next season.

With the NFL draft stocked with an impressive running back class that includes LSU's Leonard Fournette, Florida State's Dalvin Cook and Stanford's Christian McCaffrey, the Bucs will exhaust all options to improve the position before dealing with Martin.

"Doug was in town; Doug was in Tampa last week, he came by the office, looked great," Koetter said at the NFL scouting combine on Wednesday. "He looked good. He sounded good. I'm proud of Doug for taking steps necessary to get his health back.

"Now ... Doug's under contract. He's going to head back out to California to train until the players come back in April and then we'll see where it goes from there."

--It appears more likely that wide receiver Vincent Jackson will retire.

Jackson, 33, will become a free agent and recently paid a visit to coach Dirk Koetter and general manager Jason Licht. Each of the last two seasons have ended in knee injuries for Jackson, who played out his 5-year, $55.5-million contract with Tampa Bay.

"Vincent is such a proud guy and he's proud of what he's accomplished in the league and he should be," Koetter said. "He wasn't happy with the way those seasons ended. He played out his contract and we'll just have to see how this works out from here."

Did Jackson express a desire to continue his career?

"That would be a question you have to ask him," Koetter said. "We had a good conversation with Vince and like I said I've got so much respect for him as a player and a pro and a guy in our community, I mean I think anything like that should come from him. He's an unrestricted free agent so he's the guy who holds the cards on that.

"It's a process. You guys know no one backed Vincent harder than I did. Vincent and I just talked about it. You look at both of those plays in 2015 and 2016 that he got hurt on, and they were almost the identical hit, the low hit with the helmet right on his knee that he didn't see coming. Vincent has taken great care of himself over his career and it's just unfortunate the last two years the way things have gone injury-wise which he doesn't control."

--The Bucs have offered to make Mike Glennon the highest-paid backup quarterback in the NFL.

Glennon is expected to opt for free agency and probably will receive an opportunity to at least compete as a starter. But Glennon is said to be closely evaluating every situation and is leery of signing with a team with an unstable coaching situation that could doom his chances of succeeding.

The New York Jets are believed to be among the teams that have interest in Glennon, who has not started a game since 2014. In fact, Glennon did not throw a pass in 2015 and went 10 of 11 for 75 yards and a touchdown during mop-up duty in a 43-28 loss to the Atlanta Falcons last season. Jameis Winston has not missed a start in two pro seasons.

The Bucs' offer to Glennon would exceed the contract of the Philadelphia Eagles' Chase Daniels, who signed a three-year, $21 million deal to back up Carson Wentz.

A third-round pick out of North Carolina State in 2013, Glennon started 18 games in his first two NFL seasons, going 5-13