Saints’ newly-acquired Jameis Winston is “obviously a very smart player”

One of the Big Easy most-recent arrivals, Jameis Winston is already receiving praise from Pete Carmichael, the Saints offensive coordinator.

The New Orleans Saints added the NFL’s 2019 passing leader to their offensive arsenal. Jameis Winston may not play over 15 minutes in the 2020 season, but his presence will give the Saints a security blanket that not many teams with aging star quarterbacks are able to have.

While it seems like Winston was the addition of a star, many disliked his style of play because of his consistent turnover issues. Winston, while he did throw for over 5,100 yards, also tossed a league-high 30 interceptions on a league-high 626 pass attempts.

That play led to a 7-9 record for the Tampa Bay Buccanneers. The Bucs went out and signed Tom Brady while the Saints were able to bring on the former No. 1 overall pick in Jameis Winston to backup Drew Brees.

With Winston on a one-year deal and this potentially being Brees’ last season, it’d be a terrific change of guard if Winston can solve his turnover issue and then take over as the Saints unanimous leader.

If you ask the team’s offensive coordinator, Pete Carmichael, he may not hate the idea as he’s already realized that Winston is an extremely intelligent player and understands his youth may be on their side.

“Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is that he recognizes it too as well and so that’s the first step. I think that, again, in these meetings and listening to him and hearing him ask questions, he’s obviously a very smart player. But you go back and look at a lot of successful quarterbacks in this league and Jameis is still young. He’s 26 years old. It took some guys that are successful in this league early in their careers maybe didn’t play as well as they’re (capable of). It took Drew a couple of years to get going as well. We feel really good about having that player in the building,” Carmichael said of Winston in a conference call on Tuesday.

Clearly Winston is already a player that the team feels confident they can put their trust in. That said, they’ll have a tough call if Winston does retire as they’re already looking to pay Taysom Hill over $16 million in 2021.

Do they re-sign Winston and have a backup making eight figures or continue with their plans of making Hill the full-time option? That’s the question that must be answered before the commencement of the 2021 season.