Jameis Winston's Numbers Are More Historically Good Than His Interceptions Are Historically Bad

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to miss the playoffs for the 12th straight season, but don't blame Jameis Winston. Even though he's thrown a seemingly impossible number of interceptions (24 and counting), he's done a lot of good for the Bucs' offensively and is putting up some historically significant positive numbers.

With two games remaining, the Bucs sit at 7-7, good for second place in the NFC South. They have already scored a franchise-record 416 points this season. Jameis is currently leading the NFL in passing with 4,573 yards, which is already a franchise record with two games to go.

He's second in the NFL with 30 touchdown passes, also a franchise record. He has an outside shot at overtaking Lamar Jackson for the league lead, who has 33 touchdown passes and will likely shut it down for Week 17. If Winston throws just four touchdown passes over the next two weeks, he'll have one of the 52 highest totals in NFL history. He should also easily end up with one of the 50 highest completion totals ever.

Then there are the interceptions. Jameis leads the NFL with 24. Phil Rivers has 18 and Baker Mayfield has 17. It seems like a lot, but he still has no shot at the Tampa Bay record for interceptions because Vinny Testaverde threw an astounding 35 interceptions in just 15 games in 1988. That's the most in the Super Bowl era. It would take a heck of an effort for him to become the first member of the 30 touchdown / 30 interception club.

And there are still some notable names head of him on the single-season interceptions list. Brett Favre threw 29 picks in 2005. Peyton Manning threw 28 in 1998. Eli Manning threw 27 in 2013. Jay Cutler threw 26 in 2009. Jameis has thrown zero picks in just four of 14 games this season, so he'll likely catch Cutler, but passing anyone else will be hard, even for him.

While he's trying to throw all these picks and touchdowns, he's going to keep racking up the yardage. He currently has the 53rd-highest passing total in NFL history. He's coming off two weeks of 450+ passing yards. It's the first time anyone has ever done that, period. If he can keep that pace over the final two weeks, he has a shot at the all-time single-season passing yardage record. That seems a little far-fetched, so he should probably just concentrate on getting 605 yards to end up with one of the five biggest seasons ever.

This season is putting Jameis in the record books, both good and bad. His team has a shot at a winning record. And his contract is up when the season ends. Will the Buccaneers retain their all-time leading passer? Or will another team bet on similar production with a little more ball security? The only thing we know for sure is that when someone is having a monster season in the future, the name Jameis Winston is going to be on a lot of the leaderboards.