Jameis Winston gets his next shot Sunday when the New York Giants host the New Orleans Saints at noon, and it comes with plenty on both sides of the matchup.
Winston, who signed with the Saints in 2020 to back up Drew Brees and then eventually worked into the conversation to replace him, has found his way back into a starting role after Jaxson Dart went down for the season with a knee injury. The former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick has stayed unbeaten since taking over as QB1, and with J.J. McCarthy also getting some snaps as a change of pace, the job is still Winston’s for now.
“I dreamt of it,” Winston said this week. “And now it’s here.”
That means a Saints defense that knows him well is now trying to stop him. Saints defensive end Carl Granderson, who played alongside Winston for four seasons, described exactly what New Orleans is getting.
“He’s a leader,” said Saints defensive end Carl Granderson, who was teammates with Winston for four seasons. ”He’s going to bring the energy.
He’s going to make sure the offense is ready to play. He’s the hype man of their team.
So we’ve just got to be ready to get after them and have even more energy than he’s bringing.”
That energy has been one of the Saints’ problems lately. New Orleans has dropped four of its first five games, and owner Gayle Benson publicly called the team’s play “not acceptable” this week. The Saints are 1-4, riding a three-game skid, and the way they look Sunday could have real impact on how hot coach Kellen Moore’s seat gets in the days that follow.
The Giants come in at 3-1-1 and sit alone at the top of the NFC East, but Winston’s path to that record has not been smooth. In relief against the Rams, New York’s only defeat, he went 11 of 27 with an interception. He also had to grind through an ugly win over Tennessee before beating Arizona and then improving sharply in last weekend’s tie at Washington.
“It’s tough to just kind of jump in there when the offense is built probably for a different quarterback,” Giants coach John Harbaugh said. “It was awkward, and he fought through it and he kept his confidence. He kept his poise, and he found a way to win football games.
“Now we’re starting to get adapted, I think, a little bit to the game plan and what we’re doing and getting reps on the things that are more Jameis-type things.”
For New Orleans, the task is to get its offense moving again after a rough stretch. The Saints’ only win came at Baltimore, when Tyler Shough completed 27 of 34 passes for 252 yards and a touchdown while adding a rushing score.
But in last Sunday’s 23-13 home loss to Minnesota, he threw for just 96 yards and was intercepted twice. ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported Sunday that Shough has been playing with two broken bones in his left non-throwing hand.
“He’s been lighting it up since he started,” Harbaugh said of Shough. “But he’s still a young quarterback, too.
So you see all those elements. Done a great job, though.”
In Other News...
Jameis Winston Still Has Saints Fans Feeling A Certain Way
Jameis Winstons time in New Orleans never followed a straight line, but it left a mark. Over three seasons with the Saints, he spent two of them in a backup role and stepped in for 10 starts when injuries forced the issue, giving fans a look at both his resilience and the personality that helped him win them over. More than just a stop on his rsum, New Orleans became the place where Winstons leadership and presence reshaped the way plenty of people viewed him.
Now, as he gets ready for a familiar kind of spotlight, the old connection is still part of the story. Saints fans never really stopped feeling a certain way about Winston, and that speaks to how much his time here mattered beyond wins and losses. The reunion angle is obvious enough, but the more interesting part is how a player once folded into the Saints daily life still carries that bond with him wherever he goes. [Read more 🡒]
Kellen Moore Enters A Saints Game He Cant Afford To Mismanage
Kellen Moore heads into Week 6 with the kind of margin for error that barely exists in New Orleans right now. A 1-4 start has already put the Saints under a harsh spotlight, and owner Gayle Bensons frustration has only sharpened the scrutiny around a team trying to find answers on both sides of the ball. The matchup with the Giants is more than another game on the schedule because the Saints need cleaner offense, steadier defense and a plan that looks like it belongs to a team capable of climbing out of this hole.
For Moore, the pressure is no longer just about drawing up a sharper opening script. It is about how quickly he can adjust once the game starts going sideways, because the Saints have not given themselves much room to absorb another poor outing. New Orleans does not need a neat explanation for why the season has gone off track. It needs evidence that the coaching can still fix something before the noise around the team gets even louder. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Suddenly Face A Giants Rookie Who Can Wreck This Game
The Saints offense has spent the week mapping out the Giants defense, and the rookie in the middle of it is impossible to ignore. Arvell Reese has quickly become a centerpiece for New York, showing the kind of versatility that lets him move around the formation and affect plays in a bunch of different ways, which is exactly the sort of problem New Orleans cannot afford to overlook.
For a Saints unit trying to clean up its own execution, Reese changes the feel of the matchup. He has been active all over the field and has already shown he can flash as both a tackler and a playmaker, so New Orleans will have to know where he is on every snap if it wants to give itself a real shot at moving the ball cleanly. [Read more 🡒]