Saints: Jameis Winston doesn’t have much experience vs. Packers
As the New Orleans Saints look to kick off the post-Drew Brees era, they’ll turn to former Bucs number one overall pick Jameis Winston to take the reigns and get the team a surprising Week 1 victory.
As of now, the Saints are underdogs to the Packers and while playing on a neutral field doesn’t help, Green Bay has the better quarterback in Aaron Rodgers.
Despite Winston being in the league for seven years now, he has yet to face a Rodgers-led Packers team. In fact, the only time Winston has ever squared off against the Packers was in 2017 when Rodgers was injured and former UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley was starting for Green Bay.
Statistically, Winston played well in that game, which ended as a 26-20 loss at Lambeau Field in Week 13 of the 2017 season. The former Heisman Trophy winner went 21-of-32 and tossed for 270 yards and two scores while rushing for 18 yards off five carries.
Winston didn’t have a good offensive line in front of him though and it showed, as he was sacked seven times and lost a fumble in the process. It’ll be a different story this time around, as Winston now has one of the best offensive lines in the entire league. He shouldn’t be getting sacked more than once or twice at most.
Saints QB Jameis Winston has never faced Aaron Rodgers.
A lot has changed since 2017 and Winston definitely went up against one of the weaker Packers’ defenses. That isn’t the case anymore, as Green Bay has the two Smiths (Preston and Zadarius) as their predominant pass-rushers and also have a top-notch secondary with Jaire Alexander taking flight and hoping to shut down any passes thrown his way.
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Winston himself hasn’t thrown a pass as a starter since 2019 when he was a member of the Buccaneers and that’s why it’s okay to be skeptical of him coming in and making a positive impact right away. The Packers won’t be an easy task for him but with a better offensive line than he had in Tampa, Winston should be a better quarterback than what we saw two years ago.