Jameis Winston will probably not have O.J. Howard for the return to the starting lineup

Jameis Winston will be the starting quarterback of the Buccaneers when Tampa Bay returns from his week later with a NFC South match against the Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 14.

The former high school champion from Hueytown missed the first three games of the season after the NFL suspended him for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

The Bucs continued with Ryan Fitzpatrick as a starting quarterback in the fourth game on Sunday. But that will change after the opening date, said Monday Tampa Bay coach, Dirk Koetter.

"Jameis Winston is the guy who will be here much longer than me," Koetter said. "So he has to play outside, and he will be, unless he's hurt, in Atlanta."

Fitzpatrick became the first player in NFL history to spend at least 400 yards in three straight games, while Winston was suspended. Fitzpatrick completed 9 of 18 passes for a total of 126 yards without any touchdowns and interceptions, before being replaced at half-time by Winston, the Bucs lagging 35 points.

Winston completed 16 out of 20 passes for 145 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in the second half of Tampa Bay's 48-10 loss.

Winston was the starting quarterback of the Bucs since being selected with the top pick in the NFL draft in 2015. Koetter said that Winston would likely have resumed his post after the opening date, even though Tampa Bay had made a better Sunday performance.

"Last summer, I was on vacation when Jason (Licht), Tampa Bay's general manager, called me to announce that Jameis would be suspended for three matches," Koetter said. "The first thing I did was look at our calendar to see where we were, we saw that Pittsburgh was our third game on Monday night, Chicago was our fourth road game, short week. I had somehow figured out that Fitz would start the first four games and that Jameis would start in Atlanta unless we play the fires the right way or we do not do them like yesterday.

"And this is by no means on Fitz, which we lost as we did yesterday." Fitz did not play as well as he was playing, but it was a matter to 100%. "

Buccaneers played loosely O.J. Howard for most of the game against Chicago, and he will probably not be back when the season resumes against Atlanta.

Injured in Sunday's game, Howard suffered a sprain of the internal collateral ligament, reports indicated, which describes everything from slight stretching to complete tearing, depending on the severity of the injury.

"O.J. has had an MRI this morning and it looks like he's going out two weeks," Koetter said. "Obviously, we're within 24 hours of the game and they do those MRIs that can add a grade 1 to grade 2. We'll see when the players come home next week.

"OJ is injured in the middle of the game." He made an unbelievable effort to get up with one hand and try to play in. I do not know if the guy came down on him or l & rsquo; he & rsquo; It's just twisted But in fact, he has a knee sprain that will keep him from staying in the schedule for at least two weeks, we have a break, so we'll see what happens. "

In the first three games of the season, Howard has 11 assists for 222 yards and one touchdown.

An old As a star player at the Autauga Academy, Howard joined the Alabama Bucs last year as the first round pick of the NFL draft.

Mark Inabinett is a sports journalist for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ AMarkG1.