On Wednesday I chronicled in high definition how Mac Jones is the anti-Jameis Winston. So it's no surprise that the Patriots and Saints’ respective decision makers are likewise philosophically opposed.
The last decade alone provides countless examples. Where the Sean Payton-Mickey Loomis-Jeff Ireland braintrust trades future first round picks to move up for Marcus Davenport, Bill Belichick trades down and drafts a Division II safety. Where New Orleans trades a third round pick for a high-end backup quarterback, New England signs Brian Hoyer again, and again, and again. And where the Saints hand Marshon Lattimore the largest guaranteed money for a cornerback in NFL history immediately after the team dominated the Packers in Week 1, Belichick allows Ty Law, Asante Samuel, Logan Ryan and Malcolm Butler walk in free agency.
But in no way do the two differ more than in their approach to replacing their former Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
Both Tom Brady and Drew Brees were sufficiently supported in their times with the Patriots and Saints. Both teams regularly spent right up to the cap, with the Saints regularly bringing in marquee free agents such as Jared Cook and Emmanuel Sanders and the Patriots at least attempting to bring in marquee free agents such as Jared Cook and Emmanuel Sanders -- but usually ending up with the Chris Hogan or Danny Amendola type. Short of injuries on the offensive line, both were always well-protected and more often than not had at least fine defenses.
Bill Belichick is already reaping the benefits of going the cheap route at quarterback following the departure of Tom Brady, to oversimplify how that whole charade went down. One year of Cam Newton at $1M followed by starting the clock on the rookie wage scale by drafting and immediately starting Mac Jones has given Belichick Sultan of Dubai level money to play with -- which he used to pay every free agent with a pulse this offseason.
On the contrary, the Saints always bent the rules to the extreme and even though they haven’t had cap space in years still manage to bring in players and sign free agents, the consequences of which they’ll feel for a couple of years.
That’s why the Saints are putting themselves in a sticky situation with their Jameis Winston gamble. The Patriots are locked in to a cheap contract with Mac Jones for the next five seasons. Belichick will be able to sign Matt Judon-level free agents and give extensions to the Patriots’ homegrown talent, whereas the Saints are in a lose-lose situation.
If Jameis Winston plays the rest of the season anywhere close to his Week 1 performance and the Saints make the playoffs, they almost have to re-sign Winston. Not paying Winston after he proves himself on a prove-it deal in a prove-it season would send a negative message to the locker room. But paying Winston after one season when there’s a five season sample size displaying what everyone under the sun knows about Winston would immediately launch the Saints right back into the non-rookie contract quarterback life cycle of an NFL team.
Part of the issue with the Saints is that they at least appear good enough to get to .500 or above. They’ve come away with at least three “hits” in every draft since 2017, have retained many of their key homegrown players from the first half of the decade, and have hit on quite a few free agents. It’s not quite the same situation as that of the Patriots when they brought in Cam Newton, whose leadership and work ethic helped Belichick bridge the franchise’s culture through a reset year from the Brady era to the post-Brady era. The Saints may not be in a position to get a quarterback of their liking as the Patriots were in a deep year at the position.
Many of the best teams of the last decade have had the rookie QB contract in common: the early-to-mid 2010s Seahawks, the 2017 Super Bowl Champion Eagle and the 2018 Super Bowl runner-up Rams come to mind -- as do the current editions of the Bills, Chiefs, Browns and Ravens. It’s simply easier to build a team when you go the route of hitting on a cheap quarterback in the draft. Even if Winston is better than people make him out to be and if Sean Payton nerfs Winston’s borderline altruistic turnover tendencies, he’s not elite to the degree that he can offset the roster deficiencies that come with paying a quarterback big money.
That’s a bridge the Patriots will have to cross with Mac Jones in a few years. But in Jones the Patriots are taking the far more tried and true method of replacing a franchise quarterback, let alone Tom Brady.
