Getty Saints QB Jameis Winston.
The New York Giants suffered a gruesome 26-7 loss at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. One which led to Big Blue losing their grip on first place in the NFC East and putting their quarterback’s availability in question moving forward. Yet, while Daniel Jones’ injury status for the forthcoming weeks is a bit of a mystery, his whereabouts for the forthcoming season appears all but concrete.
Despite a woeful outing against Arizona and murky statistics throughout the season, Jones, when healthy, has done enough over the past month or so to prove that he deserves an opportunity to showcase that he is the guy at quarterback for the Giants.
The Tank for Trevor chatter is a long-gone fallacy and whether the Giants make the playoffs or not, Jones is here to stay. Veteran backup Colt McCoy, on the other hand, may be a different story.
Finishing out the remainder of his one-year-deal, Fansided’s Connor McJunkin believes the Giants would be best served moving off of McCoy as Jones’ primary backup, claiming the team is “playing with fire rolling him out there with the offense when Jones can’t go.”
Instead, McJunkin makes a case for the G-Men to make a play for one of the league’s biggest gunslingers in recent memory.
Jameis Winston to the Giants?
Jameis Winston has no shortage of accomplishments. The former Heisman Trophy winner and 2015 first-overall pick has a Pro Bowl selection under his belt, while his 5,109 passing yards in 2019 is the eighth-most by a quarterback in league history over a single season.
While the drawbacks to Winston are obvious, namely the decision making (30 INTs in 2019), McJunkin believes that Winston, still just 26-years-old, offers enough upside to be among the best options to serve as Jones’ backup next season:
There are a handful of teams that would prefer Winston be starting for them right now, and he’s still young with plenty of gas left in the tank. He’s proven that he can extend plays and throw the football effectively. Limiting turnovers is his biggest knock – and there’s no question that learning under Sean Payton and Drew Brees this season is helping that.
With the Saints showing their hand this season, it’s become extremely evident that Taysom Hill, not Winston, is New Orleans’ preferred quarterback of the future. Sean Peyton’s decision to opt against Winston as the team’s injury replacement to Drew Brees degraded what, in many ways, was a rebuilding year for the former Bucs starter.
While his time learning under the tutelage of Peyton will likely prove insurmountable for Winston’s future endeavors, he took a minuscule contract this past offseason mainly in hopes of catapulting himself into a larger deal and/or a starting job in 2020. Neither of those things appears likely to happen, which lines up well for a Giants team likely unwilling to break the bank for a backup quarterback, as McJunkin highlights:
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this scenario is the relatively cheap contract Winston would require. He’s currently on a-year, $1.1 million dollar contract with the Saints and unless New Orleans wants to re-sign Winston as a potential Brees replacement down the road, he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2021.
Given that Saints head coach Sean Payton chose to start Hill over Winston in place of Brees this year, chancs are Winston will be looking for a new home this offseason.
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Other QB Options for the Giants
The two other players McJunkin zeroed in on as fits for the Giants were Dallas Cowboys’ Andy Dalton and Chicago Bears’ Mitchell Trubisky. The former would offer a veteran presence in the QB room, similar to that of McCoy, yet with a higher ceiling were he called upon to play. The latter may not be the most efficient passer around, but his physical traits are undeniable. Trubisky’s rushing ability would make him an ideal fit as a reserve in New York as the team would be able to deploy a similar gameplan with him under center as they would with Jones.
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Former No. 1 Overall Pick Top Contender to Replace Giants QB in 2021