Jameis Winston's Buccaneers lost to Tom Brady's Patriots on Thursday night, but Winston still got something important out of the game: a meeting with the quarterback he dreams of becoming.
After Thursday's game -- a 19-14 Patriots victory -- Winston waited for Brady to finish up his postgame press conference so that the two could have a chat. He called the meeting an "honor" and Brady an "inspiration."
"I just said, 'It was an honor.' I told him thank you. A lot," Winston said, per ESPN. "That's a blessing, man, to meet someone like that. I dream to be able to be the type of quarterback he is for his team to our team."
Jameis Winston and Tom Brady. pic.twitter.com/ooyf9Y8bVa — Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) October 6, 2017
"Utmost respect for him," Winston added. "He's definitely an inspiration to me and the quarterback position, definitely. Like every young kid growing up with a football in their hand aspiring to be like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Joe Montana -- guys of that nature. It was a privilege and an honor to meet him, to look him in his eye, to shake his hand. It felt good. That was another highlight of my night.
"I hate that he beat me, but he beats a lot of people."
Brady, who boasts a career win-loss record of 186-54, also spoke highly of Winston.
"I feel that same way about a lot of younger players, too," he said. "I watch those guys and try to learn from them. When I was young, I learned from the older guys. And now that I'm older, I'm trying to learn from the young guys.
"He's a great young player and he obviously led the team back tonight, and they were very close. He's got a great future."
Of course, Winston has a long ways to go until he reaches Brady's level. To this point in Winston's career, he's demonstrated plenty of promise -- evidenced by his back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons -- but he's also demonstrated some alarming flaws. He struggles with his accuracy and decision making, which is why he's thrown 36 picks in 36 career games. For the sake of comparison (even if it's an unfair one), Brady averages 0.63 picks per game in his Hall of Fame caliber career.
At this point, Winston probably shouldn't worry about becoming the next Brady. He just needs to worry about being good enough to guide the talented Buccaneers to the postseason. At 2-2, the Buccaneers are only a game behind both the Falcons and Panthers in the NFC South, but they should be somewhat concerned with how their offense is performing. Despite being loaded at the skill positions (WR1: Mike Evans, WR2: DeSean Jackson), the Buccaneers are scoring just 21.3 points per game.
Winston is only 23 years old. So, he has plenty of time to develop into the next great NFL quarterback. But the Buccaneers, on the other hand, are already a quarter of the way through their season. They don't have nearly as much time to reach their remarkable potential.