The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will almost certainly be looking to address the quarterback position this offseason, and many are expecting the team to take a long, hard look at the crop of signal-callers available in the 2015 NFL Draft.
There's already plenty of intrigue over whether the Bucs will spend the draft's top pick on one of the past two Heisman Trophy winners in Oregon's Marcus Mariota and Florida State's Jameis Winston, or go in a different direction.
While the Tampa Bay front office will eventually have the final say on evaluations of the two QBs, based on what he's seen on TV, Buccaneers WR Mike Evans thinks the pair have some similarities to his former Texas A&M teammate, Johnny Manziel.
"I know Oregon beat Florida State pretty bad, but I like Jameis' game a lot," Evans told Fox Sports. "I like Mariota's game, too. Mariota reminds me a lot of Manziel. A bigger version of course. He won the Heisman. He's a great player. His resume speaks for itself. I think Manziel creates a little more than Mariota. Manziel does some impossible things, but they're very similar."
Both Mariota and Manziel fall much more in the dual-threat quarterback category, while Winston ran more of a pro-style offense for the Seminoles. All three dazzled on their way to being named college football's most outstanding player, capturing the Heisman in consecutive seasons (Manziel in '12, Winston in '13 and Mariota in '14) and Mariota and Winston have their sights set on joining Manziel as Heisman winners turned first-round picks.
Evans wasn't making a case for either player to be the Bucs' pick and said he trusts that the team's front office "will do the right thing," come draft time. Still, he couldn't help but note that the talk around Winston mirrors some of what was said when Manziel was coming out of College Station last year.
"They do different things, but they're both in the spotlight a lot," Evans said of Manziel and Winston. "Jameis had legal troubles, where Manziel parties too much, people say. It's still the same though with the off-the-field distractions. They both do a great job of owning the spotlight. Everyone wants to know what they're doing at all times. They're very popular. They're very famous."
NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah already has slotted Winston to the Bucs in his first mock draft of the year, and there will be months of debate over what the club should do with its first-round pick.
However, it sounds as though Evans, one of five finalists for the NFL Rookie of the Year Award, would be happy with either quarterback.
You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
