Quote:For those Bucs fans that are fans of Mariota, you’ve probably had to defend the fact that he’s a quiet, docile quarterback by pointing out that Flacco and Eli Manning have similar, bland personalities and they have gone to Pro Bowls and won the Super Bowl. The only problem is that personality matters to the Bucs’ front office. The team puts a tremendous amount of weight on the personal interviews with quarterbacks because that player is the leader of the offense and the leader of the team.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">The Bucs didn’t draft a quarterback last year because they couldn’t find the right match between personality and game film. Tampa Bay would have passed on Central Florida’s Blake Bortles had he been there with the seventh overall pick because he didn’t come across a “take-charge” personality kind of guy.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Tampa Bay wants an alpha male quarterback with a type-A personality under center and in the huddle. After Licht and director of player personnel Jon Robinson spent time with Brady in New England, that’s the type of poised, charismatic leader they are looking for. Winston is a much closer fit to Brady than Mariota will ever be, especially in terms of personality, vocal leadership and charisma. Bucs fans that used to be jealous of Brett Favre and want a take-charge leader with a fiery demeanor will be happy with Tampa Bay’s selection of Winston.

 

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(On Blake’s leadership skills) “Practice, command of the team in practice, command of the field, players rally around him. You see it in the field and I think Coach Bradley told me a quote throughout this process, not relating to Blake but it kind of stuck with me, ‘when somebody shows you who they are believe them,’ and this is a guy that every place he’s had a chance to compete he has competed. At Central Florida he took them to a BCS game and won it. That’s pretty impressive for any college, SEC, ACC, but this is a guy that did it at Central Florida. And then at the Combine, when was the last time a high rated quarterback did everything at the Combine? From the three cone to the short throw to the vertical jump to the broad jump, and he threw. He just competed every phase and that’s what we’re about so his leadership skills…people are going to gravitate to him and we believe that.”