INDIANAPOLIS — Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith said, based on what he knows, he would have no trouble using the No. 1 pick in the draft on Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston and making him the face of the franchise.

“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room,” Smith said during a meeting in his room at the Conrad Hotel with three writers who cover the team. “He’s been accused of a crime. There’s an allegation. He went through our court system. I have faith in our court system. He went through it. He went through the school justice system. He was cleared. He went through our court system and he was cleared. Exonerated. So what else can you do?

“That’s what we have to go on. We’ve done a lot of research. We’re going to do a lot more research on both guys. But from what I know right now, yeah, we’re OK with where he is.”

Everywhere Smith goes these days, he’s asked the proverbial question: Winston or Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.

In fact, Smith said a woman in her 80s approached him before a church service in Ellenton, Fla., about the decision.

“An older lady in church gave me a letter on who we should take and why,” Smith said.

Smith said he would be happy if either player represented the Bucs. Although the team had not been permitted to interview Winston and Mariota until Wednesday, they have dug deep into the background of each player.

Both have gobs of talent, and general manager Jason Licht says the team has a favorite.

“It would be an insult to sit here after two rounds of draft meetings and watching every play of Lovie and I, or Jon Robinson, our personnel director, Mike Biehl, our college scouting (director), all of our scouts, to watch every play and say that, ‘OK, we have two guys tied at the top.’ We have a favorite, but we want to let the process play out,” Licht said.

While scouts have questioned Mariota’s ability to adapt his skill set to a pro-style offense, the only doubts about Winston are the troubles he has found once he leaves the white lines. The most serious is an accusation of sexual assault by a female student in 2012, although Winston was never charged.

“You look at the league right now. You look at the history of our league and there’s been some good players that have been accused of things and they’re playing right now,” Smith said. “Some we talk about. Some we don’t even want to bring up. I’m talking about the ones that have been accused. There’s guys accused and there’s guys who have actually committed things. I think with Jameis, he’s accused. So for those people who are out there, if there’s a group, I assume there should be a group of people who have been proven innocent. They should have a say also.”

As for the other poor decisions Winston has made — getting into a B.B. gun fight, stealing crab legs from a Tallahassee Publix and standing on a chair in the student union while uttering a profane sexual phrase — Smith did not condone the behavior but said he shouldn’t get a “death sentence.”

“They’re bad decisions and, believe me, he’s been drug across the mud for them,” Smith said. “They’re following him and that’s what should happen. The bad decisions I’ve made, they’re going to stay with you the rest of your life and, yeah, he needs to stand up and, no, we can’t have our guys doing that right there. I’d be disappointed in my sons or anybody else, like everyone is disappointed in him. I assume he’s going to say, ‘Hey, that was dumb and stupid of me to do that.’ Florida State reacted to that also. Those are bad. But to take somebody off, to say you’re not going to let them earn a living based on that, there’s got to be something a little bit more than that to do that.”

Both Smith and Licht don’t believe they have to “babysit” Winston if he were selected by the Bucs.

“He’s a football junkie,” Licht said. “He likes being around the office and I don’t think you have to worry as much as people think.”

Meanwhile, Smith sees his role as a head coach frequently become one of a father figure to his players.

“No, we don’t want to be babysitters. I have kids myself,” Smith said. “We’re going to give direction but we want to bring in men that are going to make good decisions. You have to have a commitment to the team and part of that is showing up and doing what you need to do. Especially the quarterback position … I am involved and I do give advice and a lot of times it steps from coach to father figure.”