Buccaneers announce Jameis Winston will start despite sprained AC joint

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reeling, and they can’t afford quarterback Jameis Winston taking a week off.

Winston will start Sunday against the Buffalo Bills despite a sprained AC joint in his right throwing shoulder, coach Dirk Koetter said on Friday. Winston suffered the injury last week. Winston didn’t throw on Wednesday or Thursday, but Koetter was happy with what he saw Friday.

“Jameis will be our starter Sunday,” Koetter said, according to ESPN’s Jenna Laine. “He threw the ball well today.”

It seemed like this was the eventual conclusion. Other quarterbacks have played with that shoulder injury, as tough as it sounds for a guy who throws a ball for a living. Ben Roethlisberger played well in the 2015 playoffs with a sprained AC joint, for example. It still has to be a little scary to start your franchise quarterback with a shoulder injury.

The Buccaneers can’t afford to dig a bigger hole. They’re 2-3 with some ugly losses. The improvement expected by some experts hasn’t happened. The Buccaneers’ chances of beating the Bills would dwindle if Ryan Fitzpatrick was their starter.

Winston will start and play through the injury. Whether he’ll be effective will be seen on Sunday.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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