Breaking Down Jameis Winston's NFL Preseason Debut

On Saturday night, the NFL's focus was on Minnesota, where rookie quarterback (and No. 1 overall pick) Jameis Winston was set to see the first game action of his career when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Minnesota Vikings.

All in all, it was a performance that hammered home something that may have been lost a bit in all the hullabaloo surrounding the Heisman Trophy winner.

For all his talents, Winston is a rookie—and this ain't college.

Much like Marcus Mariota in his debut the night before, Winston got off to a rocky start.

Actually, "rocky" is being kind. After four straight Doug Martin runs, Winston's first NFL pass attempt was badly off target. The second followed suit. As Jeff Darlington of NFL Media pointed out, so did the third:

Then, on Tampa's next series, Winston was hammered for a nine-yard loss by Vikings end Everson Griffen. By that point, Michael Fabiano of NFL.com was watching Winston through his fingers:

The sun poked out from behind the clouds at that point, though, as Winston found wide receiver Vincent Jackson for a 40-yard gain on a nicely thrown deep ball:

The Buccaneers stalled at that point and had to settle for a field goal, but for a moment, it appeared Winston has settled down.

Or maybe not.

On the Buccaneers' next series, Winston committed two cardinal quarterbacking sins on the same play. First, he stared down wide receiver Mike Evans. Then Winston air-mailed his throw. The result? An easy interception for Antone Exum that led to a Vikings touchdown three plays later:

For most of the first half (Winston played all of it—eight series in total), it just wasn't pretty. There were a pair of sacks, a couple bobbled shotgun snaps that led to losses and a number of off-target throws. Winston rarely progressed past his first or second read, stared down his target far too often and threw nearly exclusively to either the right side or center of the field.

By partway through the second quarter, the snark machine in the Twitterverse was ramping up:

Late in the second quarter, though, Winston provided the Buccaneers with a glimpse of what the future could be. Granted, it was against the second-string Minnesota defense, but Winston guided the Buccaneers on an nine-play, 76-yard drive that culminated in his first NFL touchdown—an eight-yard scramble:

While Winston certainly didn't earn a standing ovation for his 9-of-19 night, much of the Chicken Little-ing some were doing was borne of unrealistic expectations for the rookie, rather than Winston's performance itself. Here's Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times on the topic:

"

His final passing stats — 9-of-19 for 131 yards, no touchdowns and one interception — were somewhat respectable, though slightly misleading. He was more bad than good, and his 48.4 quarterback rating won't win you many games in the NFL.

But give the kid a break. It was his first game, and it could have been a lot worse. Winston went from bad to better. He looked crummy at times, good at others. Overall, it was a mixed bag.

And honestly, what else should we have expected? Rookie quarterbacks are supposed to look lost. They're supposed to look out of sorts. That's exactly how Winston looked for much of Saturday night's preseason opener against the Vikings.

"

Head coach Lovie Smith may have put it best after the game. "You have to have a first game," Smith said. "You have to work through some of those things, and that's what he's doing."

It also might have helped if Winston had, well, help. The offensive line was awful, leaving Winston under constant pressure with no run game to lean on.

And even the interception had a silver lining. Many of Winston's turnovers at Florida State a year ago (and there were a lot) were the result of hubris—forcing passes into tight windows, the square peg and the round hole. Winston simply overthrew Evans, which can often be the result of jitters.

Like, say, the jitters of a young quarterback in his first game.

This isn't to say that Winston deserves a pass for an uneven NFL debut. His accuracy has to improve, and so does his vision. And at the helm of a team that won all of two games last year, it doesn't matter why it happened—Winston simply cannot commit silly turnovers.

But there were flashes of mobility, nice touch on long throws and the talent that drove the Buccaneers to draft Winston in the first place.

So while Winston may not deserve a pass, it is worth keeping in mind that it was one half of a preseason game—Winston's first preseason game. Ever.

So the kid does at least deserve some slack.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter at @IDPSharks.