Diving deeper into the Jameis Winston experience

Jameis Winston was off to an excellent start in 2021 before tearing his ACL. Could the former first overall pick finally turn his career around?

After Jameis Winston wasn’t retained in Tampa Bay in favor of Tom Brady, he signed with the New Orleans Saints, remaining in the division and backing up Drew Brees for a year.

In 2021, he was named the starter and was enjoying the best football of his career, by a lot.

Unfortunately, Winston tore his ACL early enough in the season to effectively ruin the Saints’ changes of making the postseason.

Winston appeared in seven games for New Orleans and went 5-2 as a starter.  The Saints appeared to not miss a beat from the retirement of Brees, while also appearing to have found their next long-term answer.

Now, with Famous Jameis set to be a free agent again, coming off an injury, and with many teams looking for competent quarterback play.

I would venture to guess that he can land a starting spot for at least 2022, and I think that he could also try to cement himself as a more consistent player as well.

His stint with the Saints in 2021 was solid, and I’ll take a bit of a deeper dive into his limited but encouraging 2021 and also cite some other times during his career where he played at a higher level.

Jameis Winston: 2021 season

In 2021, Winston played in 7 games, going 5-2.  He threw for 14 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions, for a passer rating of 102.8.

If Winston was able to play the entire season and kept his current pace, he’d have put up these numbers:

34 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, and a passer rating of 102.9.  He was also on pace for 2,841 yards, but only had a 59% completion percentage.

Even with some of these numbers being a bit lower and more inconsistent than normal, you cannot tell me that several teams would not have taken this type of production from their passer.

34 touchdowns would have ranked near the top of the league, and his projected 7 interceptions would have ranked near the bottom.

I understand that Winston was playing with an excellent offensive line and with a magical play-caller, but production is production, right?

How about in other years?  When else does Jameis Winston boast spurts of solid quarterback play?

Jameis Winston: Everything else

During his 2015 rookie season, Jameis Winston had a nine-game stretch where he passed for 12 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

During his 2016 season, he had a seven-game stretch where he passed for 14 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions.

During his 2017 season, he had a seven-game stretch where he passed for 9 touchdowns against 3 interceptions.

During his 2018 season, he had a seven-game stretch where he passed for 13 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

And even during his 30 interception 2019 season, he had a four-game stretch where he passed for 10 touchdowns against just 2 interceptions.

I understand that stats can be misleading, but one of the most popular and reoccurring points surrounding Winston is that he has shown at times the ability to be very good, and the games above are evidence of that, but he does have an issue of being wildly inconsistent at times, which is what the rest of his career shows.

Being that there are more teams than usual who need a quarterback for 2022 and beyond, I think Winston will have a better market than some of us think.

Would I be mad if my favorite team signed Winston to start for 2022?  No, not at all.

Jameis Winston offers what many fringe starters/high-quality backups don’t offer–he’s able to push the ball downfield, and he has never been afraid to take shots when needed.  He’s passed for 5,000 yards in a season before and has multiple seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards.

If in the right situation, perhaps with Washington, Jameis Winston can do some damage.