METAIRIE, La. — Quarterback Jameis Winston is officially heading to the New Orleans Saints after reaching a one-year deal Tuesday, the team announced.
Winston, 26, is hoping to experience the same type of career revival in New Orleans that Teddy Bridgewater just did under the tutelage of coach Sean Payton and starting quarterback Drew Brees.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft, Winston was displaced in Tampa Bay when the Buccaneers signed Tom Brady last month. Although Winston led the NFL with 5,109 passing yards in 2019, he also became the first quarterback in league history to throw for at least 30 touchdown passes and 30 interceptions in the same season.
Winston is expected to split backup duties with Taysom Hill, the Saints’ versatile passer/runner/receiver who signed a two-year, $21 million contract extension on Sunday. The Saints have stressed repeatedly that they believe Hill can become their starting quarterback after the 41-year-old Brees retires, but they wanted to have another experienced backup in the fold to allow them to keep using Hill in his vital offensive role.
Bridgewater went 5-0 as a starter for the Saints last season when Brees was sidelined with a thumb injury, and that success helped him land a lucrative deal to become the Carolina Panthers‘ starter in free agency.
“It really probably won’t be too much different than last year,” Saints assistant general manager Jeff Ireland said Monday on ESPN Central Texas’ Matt Mosley Show. “We feel like [Hill] can start in the league at some point when it’s his turn, and that’s obviously why we invested in him. But we also need a No. 2 to really utilize [Hill’s] skill set and his upside to the full extent of his ability. … We can’t do those things [with Hill] if we don’t have a solid No. 2.”
In the meantime, the Saints will obviously get a chance to evaluate Winston and decide if he could possibly become a long-term replacement. Although Brees has not yet announced any retirement plans, he has already lined up a TV gig with NBC for his post-playing career.
If Winston winds up signing with another team in 2021, the Saints could still benefit with a compensatory draft choice.
“It’s a compliment to Jameis Winston to understand where he’s at in this world and sign a one-year deal here and learn behind Drew,” Ireland said. “Look, there’s no better teacher. If Drew never said a word to him, he would observe more than he’ll ever learn in football just by learning how Drew does things. He’s an incredible leader. He’s an incredible studier of the game, how he breaks down his opponents.
“And then you throw in [offensive coordinator] Pete Carmichael, [quarterbacks coach] Joe Lombardi and Sean Payton on the offensive side of the ball and those creative minds. Jameis Winston will learn more football in a year than he has in his lifetime.”
Winston reached both his positive and negative extremes on the field in his first season under coach Bruce Arians in 2019.
Turnovers have been Winston’s biggest issue as a pro, as opponents scored an NFL-high 112 points off them last season. Overall, he has 111 turnovers — the most for any player in the league since 2015. Winston’s 19,737 passing yards since 2015, however, is the seventh-most in the league.
After the season, Winston took steps to correct his nearsightedness, undergoing LASIK surgery.
The Bucs could have reached a deal with Winston at any point after the season, but Arians was adamant about seeing “what’s behind Door No. 2” when it came to which free agents would be available.
Winston went 28-42 in his five seasons as a starter with the Bucs, completing 61.3% of his passes with 121 touchdowns and 88 interceptions. He developed a strong connection with Pro Bowl receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin,
Arians said he was happy with Winston’s progression on the deep ball, as the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner completed 40.2% of his passes of 20 or more air yards in 2019, which was helped by his chemistry with receiver Breshad Perriman. Before last season, he had completed just 30.5% of such passes.
Winston was suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season after an eight-month NFL investigation concluded that he engaged in detrimental conduct in March 2016 by touching a female Uber driver “in an inappropriate and sexual manner without her consent.” A settlement was reached in a separate lawsuit.
The Saints will have to get creative, as usual, to make room for Winston financially, and his deal will likely include voidable years to spread out his cap hit. The Saints began the week with about $4 million in salary-cap space and still need to make room for their draft picks and a possible long-term extension with running back Alvin Kamara, among others.
ESPN’s Jenna Laine contributed to this report.