FSU Football: Poll Says Mariota Will Have Better Second Season Than Winston

Former FSU football star quarterback Jameis Winston still needs to make a believer out of some NFL fans apparently.

The former FSU football star was featured in an NFL Network Twitter poll that asked the following question on Twitter:

Which 2nd-year QB will have a better season in 2016?

The options were Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston and Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Check out the results with nearly 7,000 votes:

These two quarterbacks will forever be linked together, much like Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf since they went No. 1 and No. 2 in the 2015 NFL Draft.

The two were linked before that as they met when FSU football traveled to California to take on the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl which was game of the new four team NCAA football playoff.

The Ducks crushed the ‘Noles 59-20 behind five FSU turnovers, and the biggest villain in college football suffered the only loss in his college career.

The two also met in the first NFL game of their respective careers when Mariota and the Tennessee Titans traveled to Florida to take on Winston and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the season opener in 2015.

Mariota outplayed Winston, posting a perfect passer rating while throwing four touchdowns in the first half with the Titans leading 35-0 at halftime. They would go on to win the game 42-14.

Winston got better as the season progressed and even made the Pro Bowl in his rookie year while Mariota dealt with injuries, missing four games with knee sprains while being sacked 38 times which was seventh most in the NFL.

It’s difficult to look at traditional stats and compare the two players because Mariota missed essentially four and a half games. There are plenty of advanced metrics out there to support both players argument on who had the better rookie season.

Winston had double the wins that Mariota had and was more valuable per play based on Football Outsider’s DVOA:

"Defense-adjusted Value Over Average. This number represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations."

Winston faced better defenses and both players were missing receivers due to injury while playing behind patchwork offensive lines.

Buccaneeer receivers dropped passed 5.1 percent of the time compared to Titan receivers at 4.2 percent.

In a sense, both players played well given the circumstances of the teams they played for while also acknowledging it was their rookie seasons and they were starting from day one.

It seems as though the fans in this poll were giving Mariota a pass because he was injured for 25 percent of the season, or they believe Winston’s play was a fluke.

Maybe there’s still some venom towards Winston and how he was perceived while with FSU football?

These two quarterbacks will not have an opportunity to face one another in 2016, but it will be cool to see which quarterback has the better sophomore campaign.

Next: Comparing Winston's Rookie Season To Cam Newton And Andrew Luck

We know who we’re putting our money on, how about you?