Dungy: Winston needs to reinforce his good-heartedness with good decision-making

Dating back to his days at Florida State, Jameis Winston has struggled to keep the spotlight on his achievements on the field instead of his issues off it.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' quarterback is again in the news for all the wrong reasons, as he's set to miss the first three games of the season after the NFL deemed accusations he groped a female Uber driver in March 2016 were "consistent and credible."

Ex-Bucs head coach Tony Dungy, who says he's talked to Winston "quite a bit" since he was drafted in 2015, believes Winston's actions aren't indicative of who he is as a person.

"I know he has a good heart. He wants to do the right thing," Dungy said, according to Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times. "He's very aware of his role as a leader, his role as someone kids need to look up to. I think he knows the right things to do. Now he just needs to follow through on that with good decision-making."

Dungy said he expects the Bucs' leadership to make it clear they need more of Winston in terms of acting like a franchise-level player.

"I'm sure they've had a conversation with Jameis, and probably with everybody on the team: This is where we are, this is what we expect," Dungy said. "You do hope that everybody grows from this and learns from it."

Winston has two years remaining on his rookie contract, and next offseason would've likely been the time for Tampa Bay to extend its starting quarterback. However, after this latest incident, Winston's future with the team appears far less secure.

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