Could Jameis Winston be an option for the Washington Commanders?

Taking a closer look at free agent QB Jameis Winston

As the Washington Commanders search for a starting quarterback continues, I’ll continue to break down different options available to them. Previously, I took a closer look at how Jimmy Garoppolo might fit in Scott Turner’s offense if the Commanders were to trade for him. But what if Washington opts against using draft capital in a trade or simply fails to land a quarterback it likes? The next option to find a veteran starter that Ron Rivera desires is in free agency. The top free agent quarterback this year is projected to be Jameis Winston.

Winston has had an interesting career to date. The former number one overall pick in 2015 had some promising years in Tampa Bay before Bruce Arians arrived, but had an eye-catching season under the aggressive offense Arians brought with him in 2019. He threw for 5109 yards and 33 touchdowns, but also had 30 interceptions to go with it. 

The Bucs moved on from Winston in favor of Tom Brady and Winston joined the Saints to learn under Drew Brees and Sean Payton. When Brees retired, Winston became the starter for the Saints in 2021, but we saw a very different quarterback in New Orleans to the one we saw in Tampa Bay. With the Bucs, one of Winston’s greatest strengths was his football intelligence. He understands defenses, where to attack them and how to anticipate throwing windows.

Here, Winston is faced with a third and seven situation. He has his top receiver, Mike Evans, aligned in the slot to the left running a deep hook or curl route. With the threat of Evans attacking deep, the slot defender naturally opens his hips in preparation to run deep with him. That gives Evans a leverage advantage when he breaks off his route and sits down. Winston knows this, and he also sees the safety on the other side of the hashmarks opening his hips away from Evans to turn and run too. This means that while there are two defenders relatively close by to his intended target, neither have the hip positioning and leverage to contest the throw to Evans if the ball comes out on time. Armed with that knowledge, Winston delivers the throw before Evans comes out of his break and the ball is on him before any defender can prevent him from catching it.

This level of understanding and anticipation is fantastic and was one of the big reasons Winston was able to throw for over 5000 yards in 2019. However, a lot of Winston’s interceptions came from him overthinking and assuming certain routes would be open rather than him confirming the window is actually there to be thrown into.

 On the first play of this game, Winston looks to work a drift route to his left, with the receiver bending his route behind the underneath coverage and breaking inside away from the corner on the outside. Off the snap, Winston looks immediately to his right, hoping to move Colts linebacker Darius Leonard out of position and open the throwing window behind him. However, Winston doesn’t check he actually got Leonard to bite and simply looks right before instantly throwing to his left. Leonard isn’t moved by Winston’s look to the right and sinks back right into the passing lane. In the end, it looks like Winston almost intentionally passes the ball straight to Leonard, who happily accepts the invitation to intercept the pass.

Those 30 interceptions are a huge drawback for Winston and it’s clear Sean Payton and the Saints were intent on cutting those turnovers down. To do that, it seems as though they cut back on how much they allowed Winston to anticipate throws. Instead of the great anticipation and making throws based off leverage of the defenders as we saw earlier, Winston played very much within himself in 2021. He waited to see receivers break open rather than anticipated them doing so, which made him late with a lot of throws.

You can see the difference pretty clearly between the timing of Winston’s throw and the break of the receiver compared to the play earlier from 2019. On this play, Winston works a deep out route off play-action. Washington cornerback Kendall Fuller plays significantly off and inside the receiver, leaving plenty of space for the receiver to work outside. In 2019, Winston would have made this throw before the receiver cut outside, giving the receiver a chance to pick up additional yards after the catch. But with the Saints, Winston waits to see the receiver breaking open, ensuring the throw is safe before he pulls the trigger. He’s still able to complete the pass for a solid gain, but because the throw came out much later, there was no opportunity for additional yards after the catch.

Another big part of Winston’s game is his arm strength. He has the arm to drive the ball with velocity to all parts of the field, making him a very good deep passer. This is enhanced by his ability to read defenses and understand where his best matchups are.