There’s a number of tough decisions ahead for the New Orleans Saints in free agency, but they’ve done a good job retaining players in the past and should have an opportunity to add new talent on the open market. Their busy activity last summer took many of their most high-profile 2024 free agents off the board — guys like Carl Granderson, Cameron Jordan, and Cesar Ruiz, among others.
Which brings us to those still up in the air. We’ll start with quarterback Jameis Winston. Techniclaly speaking, he isn’t a free agent. But the Saints paid him a $100,000 bonus before the 2023 season ended to move the expiration date back on his contract, which makes it easier for them to release him, at least as far as the salary cap is concerned.
As reported by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill, the Saints must choose whether to release Winston or extend his contract by March 16 or pay him a staggering $107,255,000. That isn’t a check they’re going to write, so a decision is coming. Let’s recap Winston’s time with the Saints thus far and decide whether or not he should stick with New Orleans:
Career stats
Winston was demoted to a backup role last season (where he only dropped back to pass 49 times) so we’ll be looking at his four-year Saints career in evaluating him. He cooled down quickly after some early success as the starter under Sean Payton back in 2021, where he threw 14 of his 20 touchdown passes in a Saints uniform. But Winston couldn’t sustain that success and a series of brutal injuries prompted head coach Dennis Allen to spearhead the recruiting campaign for Derek Carr.
In total, Winston has completed 200 of his 334 pass attempts (59.9%) for New Orleans, gaining 2,367 yards at an average depth of target at 10.4 yards. He’s scored 20 touchdown passes and converted 106 first downs for a success rate of 42.5%. He’s also taken 26 sacks (7.2% sack rate) and thrown 11 interceptions while fumbling 5 times. He did score a rushing touchdown and ran for 17 first downs in 2021 but hasn’t made many plays with his legs since.
Snap counts
As we said earlier, Winston was benched after returning from his injury in 2022 and remained a backup in 2023 behind Derek Carr. He still got into seven games last season, either as an injury replacement or mop-up quarterback with the second-string offense, but he only played extensively in two of those matchups with 23 snaps against…
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