Saints still don’t know what kind of QB they have with Jameis Winston

While Jameis Winston has done a nice job through the first five games of the 2021 season, the New Orleans Saints still are unsure what kind of signal-caller he’ll be on a regular basis.

As a result, it’s no wonder that Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report said the one question haunting the Saints is if Winston can be a ‘safe’ quarterback or not.

"In short, Brees was both consistent and reliable. The same cannot be said for quarterback Jameis Winston. If the Saints are hoping to make Winston their long-term answer at quarterback, they need to find out if it ever can.His talent has never been in question, but turnovers and consistency issues were common during Winston’s pre-Saints career. The seventh-year quarterback has also been up-and-down during the first five weeks of the season."

This isn’t news for anyone, especially Saints fans, who saw their team face Winston twice a year from 2015-2019. The last time Winston was a starting quarterback prior to this year was in 2019 when he threw 30 interceptions as a member of the Buccaneers.

Knox continued:

"Winston has had big plays and 12 passing touchdowns, but he’s also created problems for the Saints to overcome. He tossed two interceptions in the Week 2 blowout loss to Carolina. He had two first-quarter turnovers in Week 5 against Washington. In each game, he completed just 50 percent of his pass attempts."

Okay, I’ll play devil’s advocate here. Yes, Winston wasn’t great in the Week 2 loss to the Panthers but that game might as well have an asterisk next to it. There were injuries all over the board for NOLA and the team was without eight coaches due to COVID protocol.

In the Washington game, we saw Winston rebound after a rough first half and he finished with four touchdowns. He was definitely a big factor in why the black and gold came out on top that week.

Jameis Winston still has his fair share of question marks.

I’ve defended Winston quite a bit this season because it’s hard to ignore the injuries this team has and the lack of true threats for the quarterback to throw to. Be that as it may, he’s yet to have a 300-yard passing game and there will be games where he’ll be tasked with airing it out more.

The turnovers haven’t been as big of an issue this year, however, as the former Buc has just three picks through five games. Saints fans would have gladly taken that number if someone said that’s how many he’d have through the BYE week.

While Winston still is an unknown as far as what he’ll be long-term, so far, he’s been a serviceable quarterback.