PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – He tore up Heinz Field in his debut on the national stage on his way to winning a Heisman Trophy at Florida State. He's mobile, still young and coming off a major knee injury. The pros and cons of Jameis Winston replacing Ben Roethlisberger in 2020.
WHY?
· The Heisman Trophy winner just turned 28 years-old so a lot of football ahead of him.
· Fits the mobile quarterback request of Mike Tomlin, rushing for 5.2 yards per attempt
· Winston won the starting QB job despite New Orleans paying Taysom Hill $40 million to potentially replace Drew Brees.
· He teased the football world throwing five touchdowns in just 20 attempts in a 2021 opening week blowout of NFC regular-season champion Green Bay.
· Overall in 2021, Winston would go 5-2 with the Saints beating the Packers, Patriots, Washington, Seattle and Tampa Bay. He threw for 1,170 yards, completing 59% of his passes for 14 touchdowns to 3 interceptions and a rating of 102.8 before an ACL injury ended his season.
· Winston led the NFC in passing yards (5,109) and yards per game (319.3) in 2019
WHY NOT?
· In 2019 Winston also led the NFC in interceptions with 30 and lost 9 games as a starter
· Unknown how long he would take to recover from that major knee injury and may not be in position to have much of any of an off-season or potentially even training camp
COST
· Winston cost the Saints $5.5 million, likely there will be a few more bidders that would drive up the price maybe by a couple million more.
