TAMPA, Fla. _ Don't hire a head coach to coach one player.
At least, don't tell the world that's why you did it.
Don't name offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter head coach after firing Lovie Smith after only two seasons because you want continuity for Jameis Winston.
And when you that doesn't work, don't insist that Bruce Arians is here to give the quarterback his best, last chance to fulfill his promise as the No. 1 overall pick of the Bucs.
At least that has always been the perception. Nobody has bothered to change it.
Koetter, and now Arians, were hired by the Glazer family which owns the Bucs, to coach Winston.
The theory went like this: make Winston a franchise quarterback and somehow all the other problems on the team will cosmetically disappear.
But what happens if the quarterback doesn't really get any better?
What if he is not able to win enough games by himself?
Worse yet, what if Winston throws 20 interceptions in 11 games, the most of his career and the most through that same span since Jay Cutler in 2009?
What if Winston has the most turnovers of any player in the NFL since he was drafted in 2015? What if his jump pass interception against the Atlanta Falcons is his 100th turnover in only 67 games?
Everyone knows about Winston's 78 interceptions. What few talk about are the 22 lost fumbles, also the most of any player since he entered the league. (He fumbled 49 times but 27 were recovered by the Bucs).
The quarterback is the most important component of any NFL team. He sets the tone. First one in the building, last one to leave. Winston has all of that and much more.
But the quarterback will collapse like a sandcastle in the surf if he doesn't have a strong foundation built around him.
You can't hire a head coach to coach one player.
It's been tried before.
The Atlanta Falcons hired Bobby Petrino in 2007, six days after Louisville beat Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. They signed him to a five-year $24 million contract for the express purpose of coaching Michael Vick.
At the time, Vick was a six-year veteran and an electrifying playmaker but wildly inconsistent.
He had thrown 71 touchdowns and 52 interceptions and owned a 38-28 record. In 2004, he led the Falcons to the NFC championship game to the Eagles.
The Falcons saw Petrino as the quarterback whisperer for Vick.
It never happened.
News of Vick's involvement in a dog-fighting ring broke in April. He was suspended by the NFL in August.
Petrino knew it was over. The team wasn't built well enough to withstand the loss of their QB.
With three games left in the season, Petrino left the Falcons in Dec. 11. He never addressed the team. Instead, he put a four-sentence laminated note in each player's locker.
The front office had to convince Petrino to even address his coaches. The same night he was named the Arkansas Razorbacks coach.
Arians is a much, much better coach than Bobby Petrino. He's also a better head coach than Koetter.
Arians was the NFL's Coach of the Year for the Colts and the Cardinals.
While Arians has said he doesn't "give a damn" how Winston played before he got here, the front office and ownership sure does. They're the ones who must decide whether to use a $25- to $27-million franchise tag on Winston to bring him back in 2020.
And at 4-7 and picking 11th in the NFL draft, what are the Bucs' options?
Re-sign Winston and hope he becomes more consistent after five years of inconsistency or try to thread the needle with a free-agent bridge quarterback like Teddy Bridgewater, Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers or perhaps Andy Dalton while developing a young guy.
The Bucs were a flawed team long before Arians arrived.
Too many resources were used building around Winston on the offensive side of the football. In the last two seasons, the pendulum swung the other way with six defensive backs selected in the first four rounds. Those players are green but growing.
Even so, there are other holes to fill on both the offensive and defensive lines. That foundation was never completely built.
Virtually every player on the defensive line and outside linebacker will likely become a free agent besides Vita Vea in 2020.
Shaq Barrett, who is tied with the Cardinals Chandler Jones as the NFL's sack leader with 12.5, will hit the free-agent lottery with some team, perhaps the Bucs.
The Bucs will need a right tackle as Demar Dotson, who will be 35 next season, is a free agent.
But the way the Bucs positioned Arians, his success or failure would only be viewed through the prism of Winston's performance.
The irony is that Arians has less involvement with Winston that he has had with any other quarterback. He's not the Bucs' offensive coordinator the way he was with the Colts and Cardinals. That's Byron Leftwich. He's not in all the quarterback meetings. That's quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen.
But Arians was smart to surround Winston with those coaches and others, like 81-year-old offensive consultant Tom Moore, who has worked with Arians in Indianapolis and Arizona.
"It's always a plus when your head coach believes in you," Winston said.
And yet, here the Bucs are with five games to play and no clue what to do with Winston.
Maybe the Bucs put together a string of wins to end the season, the way Tony Dungy won five of his last seven games in '95 after a 1-8 start.
Unfortunately, how Winston plays will be the evaluation that Arians will have to own.
The Bucs put him in that position. Turns out, the team had more issues than just the quarterback.
