MIAMI — Everybody needs a backup plan, something that can steady the nerves and bring calm when there is calamity.
For the Bucs, the guy with the real spare tire is 35-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick, whose job will be to keep all the wheels from falling off this season while Jameis Winston serves his three-game suspension.
"I feel good,'' Fitzpatrick said. "The biggest thing with the reps with me is how does your arm feel? Are you throwing too much? Definitely not. The reps have stepped up a little bit, but not a ton. Now the reps I do take are a little more meaningful than the ones I had all of last year just in terms of working with twos and threes.