Once quarterback Deshaun Watson chose to waive his no-trade clause for the Browns, the Saints quickly pivoted to bringing back free agent Jameis Winston.
The 2015 No. 1 overall pick will head into his second season as New Orleans’ QB1 and is reportedly slated to be ready for training camp, despite a midseason ACL tear in 2021.
Winston completed 59 percent of his passes for 1,170 yards with 14 touchdowns and three interceptions last season. At the annual league meeting last week, Saints head coach Dennis Allen said that ratio of touchdowns to interceptions was a big part of why New Orleans felt good about Winston.
But in discussing what he’s been working on, Winston recently told reporters that he’s trying to get better at completing available short passes.
“I’m really excited to focus on my intermediate accuracy,” Winston said, via Mike Triplett of ESPN. “Getting those easy completions to Alvin Kamara. … We saw that in the [win over the Seahawks], how effective that was. You know, really perfecting the passes from behind the line of scrimmage to 10 yards down the field.”
Winston, who led the league with 30 interceptions in 2019, averaged just 186 yards passing in his first six starts with the Saints going 4-2 in those games. That number is a far cry from Winston’s 274-yard average in his first five seasons with Tampa Bay.
But with Kamara in tow and receiver Michael Thomas also expected to be back, Winston should get the benefit of both players’ catch-and-run abilities in 2022.
“I know I can make the big plays, but really just staying in the rhythm of completing the football, keeping the offense going throughout the course of a game is something that I’ve been able to focus on,” Winston said.
