The Saints will name Jameis Winston as their starting quarterback to open the year (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Winston, hot off of a strong preseason performance, will lead the charge while Taysom Hill resumes his gadget/wild card role. 
Winston looked strong against the Jaguars on Monday, posting 123 yards and two touchdowns while completing nine of his ten throws. While he was interception-prone in Tampa (to put it politely), he was calm, cool, and accurate in the pocket. Hill, meanwhile, went 11-for-20 with 138 yards and a touchdown. Up until this point, Saints head coach Sean Payton kept a pretty tight lid on his plans.
“I’m not going to have weekly or daily updates,” Payton said just last week. “These guys are both working hard.”
Winston now has a prime opportunity to lead the post-Drew Brees Saints offense. He’ll also have a chance to cash in. His modest one-year, $5.5MM deal includes $7MM in incentives, so a strong year could more than double his earnings.
Winston, 27, attempted just eleven passes last year for the Saints. In his last season with the Bucs in 2019, he threw 33 touchdowns while also lobbing an incredible 30 interceptions. This time around, he’s hoping to fix that ratio.
He will get paid after this season.. he should put p big numbers and I think his interceptions will be drastically reduced due to good coaching
And slants to Michael Thomas once he’s healthy
Not playing from behind by 20 at the half is going to be what helps Jameis. Those Bucs teams he was on were really bad defensively. And there wasn’t much running game to balance it either. Jameis is an underrated quarterback who can really
Sling the football. He is still only 27, much more mature and experienced, with a better defense and better coaching than he had. He’s going to be good in NOLA.
He won’t last 5 games. Saints don’t turn the ball over and that’s the only thing Winston does well.
If that were the case, Winston’s touchdowns would not outnumber his interceptions.
So you consider a 33-30 TD to INT ratio acceptable?
Cut the kid a break, he was playing from three touchdowns behind at the house every game practically. Trying to make a play and trying to get his team back in the game. Many of those interceptions were not his fault. I’m a huge Bucs fan and I’ve watched all of his games. Yes many were his fault but he’s not a 30 interception guy. Frankly, I don’t believe he’s even a 15 interception guy this year.
*at the half
No, but if he were ONLY good at turning the ball over, he wouldn’t have thrown 33 touchdowns, would he?
A much better way to say this is Winston’s good at a lot of things. Creating turnovers unfortunately is one of them. if he just worse at throwing interceptions, he would be a good quarterback.
In addition, his 4.8% INT rate in 2019 was an outlier in his career, college and pros both. Take away that year, and his pro INT rate is 3%, and his college INT rate was 3.3%. Not great in the modern NFL (Brees’ career rate was 2.3%), but not as bad as 2019 made him out to look.
He’ll play the full 16. So many of his interceptions were him forcing things and making ill-advised deep throws trying to get his team back into games.
Also, to say that the ‘Saints don’t turn the ball over’ ignores a huge chunk of Payton’s tenure. Look at Brees’s numbers. He threw a ton of interceptions (14+ in seven of his first eleven years with the Saints, including 22 in 2010), too, until his last four years.
I think this move with pay huge dividends. I believe Payton has worked with Winston on his turnovers and he will be a dynamic playmaker in their offense. Now they will be able to throw the ball to quadrants of the field that they were unable to with Brees at the helm. No disrespect to Brees but his performance in last years playoff game was just sad.
Winston not a winning QB. Week 3 he leads the league in Int.
I’ll bet you $100 he is not the league leader in interceptions at week three. I see you on here all the time Bobby Cox. Find me after week three.
I’ll get in on that bet too. Not even a saints fan.
That he won’t lead the league in interceptions by week 3, that is.
I think Winston will do well. Sean Payton will put him in positions to be successful. He may not be elite but at worst he will be a game manager for the saints. Long as Kamara stays healthy think Winston will do well.
go get em crab legs
TIME TO EAT SOME W’S
Winston won’t last . he’s turnover king that’s all he does in first half then in second half he might play ok . this guy has been this way since college so he won’t last