Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Individual Awards All That's Left to Salvage After Week 16

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped their third straight contest on Sunday, falling to the Chicago Bears 26-21 in their final home game of the 2015 season.

The loss drops the Bucs to 6-9 on the year, which is triple their win total from last season, but the last three weeks have stolen much of the positive momentum they had built up over the first two-thirds of their second campaign under head coach Lovie Smith.

Three weeks ago, the Bucs were 6-6 and coming off a huge home win over the division-rival Atlanta Falcons with legitimate hopes of making a playoff run. Instead, they’ll be trying to avoid their third consecutive season with at least 10 losses—and their fifth in the last seven years.

The Bucs will face the Carolina Panthers in Week 17, who saw their bid for an undefeated season come up short thanks to a 20-13 loss to the Falcons on Sunday. With the unblemished season ruined for Cam Newton and company, even the opportunity for the Bucs to play spoiler next week has been taken off the table.

That being the case, what’s left for the Bucs to play for next week, aside from potentially locking up a top-10 pick in the 2016 draft?

How about some individual hardware for their two most pleasant surprises on offense this year?

After his first 300-yard passing game last week, Jameis Winston nearly eclipsed that threshold again on Sunday, throwing for 295 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Bears. A Hail Mary toss to Austin Seferian-Jenkins in the game’s final seconds aided his totals, but they’ll pad his resume for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year just the same.

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The top pick in last year’s draft, Winston has now thrown for 3,717 yards and 22 touchdowns on the year, adding five scores on the ground. Quite the gunslinger at Florida State, many expected him to rack up plenty of interceptions this season, but he’s only thrown 13 in his first NFL season so far. Until his lone pick on Sunday, Winston had yet to throw a single pick inside the red zone.

Winston leads all NFL rookies in passing yards and touchdowns, and he helped turn the Bucs from NFL bottom-feeder into a team that had playoff hopes in December for the first time since 2012. He’s already proved himself to be the team’s vocal leader on the field and in the locker room—despite being just 21 years old—and he’s led the Bucs to multiple fourth-quarter comeback wins in his rookie season.

The likes of Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota and Rams running back Todd Gurley will give him plenty of competition, but Winston has made an extremely strong case to be the NFL’s best offensive rookie in 2015.

Tampa Bay's rookie quarterback has been impressive, but the engine that has driven the Bucs offense all season has been Doug Martin.

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After two injury-riddled seasons, the Bucs chose not to pick up the fifth-year option on Martin’s rookie contract for the 2016 season. Martin responded by dropping 20 pounds in the offseason and returning to the form that helped him earn a Pro Bowl berth as a rookie in 2012.

A pair of costly fumbles on Sunday won’t help his case, but Martin has a legitimate shot to beat out Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for the NFL rushing title. Heading into Sunday’s game, Martin was just nine yards behind Peterson, but he added only 49 yards to his total against the Bears. Peterson is likely to maintain his lead heading into Week 17, but Martin will still be within striking distance for the final 60 minutes of the season.

The Bucs have a young team and a bright future ahead. Winston will be around for a long time to come, and Tampa Bay would be wise to make sure Martin doesn’t leave town after the season. Whether they slap the franchise tag on him or work out a long-term deal, expect the Bucs to lock up Martin, whether he’s 2015’s top rusher or not.

Tampa Bay’s 2015 season has had plenty of peaks and valleys, but potentially ending the year on a four-game losing streak would put a huge damper on morale heading into the offseason. One of the few things that could cushion that blow would be claiming both the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and rushing champ.

Luke Easterling is a Featured Columnist covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and NFL draft for Bleacher Report. He is also a senior NFL draft analyst for Draft Breakdown. Follow him on Twitter @Luke Easterling.