Two preseason games down, and the New Orleans Saints’ quarterback room remains engaged in a competition to see who will be the starter when the Arizona Cardinals visit on the opening Sunday of the 2025 NFL season. Based on how the competition has taken shape thus far, it’s fair to say that either Spencer Rattler or Tyler Shough will end up being the choice of head coach Kellen Moore. That is, unless an unexpected, yet familiar wild card emerges.
That wild card is not Jake Haener, who didn’t see the field at all in New Orleans’ 17-17 tie with the Jacksonville Jaguars this past weekend. Instead, it could end up being former Saints quarterback Jameis Winston, who is currently the 3rd quarterback on the New York Giants depth chart. Assuming the Giants keep only Russell Wilson and rookie Jaxson Dart, Winston will be a cut-day casualty who potentially has value in a number of cities around the league.
“The Saints, for whom Winston played for four seasons, could bring the veteran quarterback in for essentially nothing, and he’d provide the team with some much-needed experience,” writes Justin Carter of FanSided (h/t Zach Pressnell of Sports Illustrated). “Jameis Winston doesn’t make sense on the Giants roster. Russell Wilson is the starter. Jaxson Dart is a first-round pick who has shown enough to be the No. 2 guy. What’s the point of having Winston there?”
Jameis Winston played for the New Orleans Saints from 2020 to 2023, primarily serving as a backup in that time. However, Winston did start ten games in those four seasons, seven of which came in the 2021 campaign when he was named the Week 1 starter after Drew Brees’ retirement. Winston went 5-2 in those seven starts before tearing his ACL midway through the season.
In total, Winston threw for 2,367 yards, 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in his four seasons with the Saints. Despite his many warts, he is far more proven than either Shough and Rattler are, and in relation to Shough, Winston has been a valuable locker room presence in every stop of his career, and likely someone that the rookie from Louisville could learn under, even if he’s the one starting on opening Sunday.
Jameis Winston Would Have Support in Saints Locker Room
Plenty of dominoes would need to fall before all of this would come to fruition, but many of Winston’s former teammates in the Saints locker room continue to have a great relationship with the former 1st overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. That includes defensive leader Cam Jordan, who had this to say about Winston back in June:
“My guy, Jameis, like, come on down. It makes a lot of sense,” Jordan told Kay Adams. “I’m going all in Jameis as a veteran quarterback. Come on over.”
Unfortunately for Cam Jordan, Kellen Moore hasn’t seemed too keen on adding another fresh face to the room.
“We feel like we have some good guys here that can certainly mentor each other at the same time going through this process,” Moore said back in May. I feel like our quarterback room has some experience there in the sense that myself, [offensive coordinator] Doug Nussmeier, [quarterbacks coach] Scott Tolzien, we’ve all been around this for a while from a player’s and a coach’s perspective.”
Jameis Winston Not The Only Veteran Quarterback Who Could Possibly End Up on Saints’ Radar
In just a matter of weeks, numerous teams will be paring down their rosters, and a handful of quarterbacks are bound to hit the open market. One of those quarterbacks may end up being Kenny Pickett, a 2022 1st Round pick who is actually 15-10 as a starting quarterback in the NFL despite a badly bruised reputation around the league.
Pickett flamed out in Pittsburgh and was eventually traded to Philadelphia to back up Jalen Hurts, and he now finds himself in a deeper quarterback competition in Cleveland than what’s currently ongoing in New Orleans.
Zach Pressnell of Sports Illustrated believes that Pickett could find his way to New Orleans if he ends up being the odd-man out in Cleveland.
“While Pickett wasn’t the most impressive option when he was a starter, he still helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win games,” Pressnell writes. “At the very least, he’d be good competition for Shough and Rattler, with the potential to steal the starting job in New Orleans if he lands there. At the end of the day, he’s a significant upgrade over Haener at the very least.”
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