It’s been a rougher start to the 2022 season than anyone anticipated. The New Orleans Saints are 1-2, and Jameis Winston has thrown more interceptions (5) than touchdown passes (4) in his first three games. He’s fumbled a couple of snaps from under center and was just shut out in the first half by the Carolina Panthers, tying the number of first-half shutouts the Saints experienced with Drew Brees at the helm for 228 games.
But Dennis Allen isn’t ready to make a change, despite having invested in a veteran backup plan during the offseason. He made it clear that Winston, not Andy Dalton, remains his starting quarterback after Sunday’s game.
“There’s enough mistakes to go around that I don’t really want to go there,” Allen said when asked if he’d consider making a change at quarterback. “I feel confident with Jameis, certainly we all need to do better.”
Sure, there is a lot of blame to go around. Pete Carmichael’s play calling has had no rhyme or rhythm. Incomplete passes on first down are followed by short gains on the ground on second down, and then the Saints are stuck consistently facing third downs with six, seven, or eight yards to go. He’s increasing the degree of difficulty for everyone involved. Mental errors across the board — missed tackles on defense, penalties on special teams, miscues on offense — are costing this team games.
It’s really tough to be hard on Winston when he’s battling so many injuries. The ankle issue that limited him in training camp has flared up again, and he’s wearing four layers of padding to protect the fractured vertebrae in his back. Beyond the ways those issues are impacting his throwing mechanics, the constant, passing level of pain has to be influencing his mentals.
Still, he has to play better. It’s one thing if Winston is going through the normal struggles that come with inexperience in a system. It’s something else if he’s managing injuries that are impacting his performance. When he’s playing poorly and playing hurt, and his head coach isn’t ready to pull him out of action for his own good, it erodes a lot of the goodwill that Allen cultivated over the summer.
The Saints offense has too much talent, on paper, to be so mediocre in so many different phases. They can’t consistently create big plays through the air. They aren’t multiple enough to threaten teams horizontally. Winston has had three years to practice with Alvin Kamara and still can’t throw him a catchable football four or five yards away from the line of scrimmage, which is the sort of easy checkdown that quarterbacks around the league envy.
Would Dalton be more productive than Winston? Probably not, or he wouldn’t be looking for work as a backup in the first place. But he may be a better fit in the offense the Saints want to run that Winston has been so far. Dalton can at least get Kamara going and keep a cool head on critical downs. He can read the pressure pre-snap and adjust protections to account for it. Winston spent Sunday afternoon getting chased around because the Panthers learned he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, account for overload blitzes.
Winston is limited by his injuries. He’s also limited by his flaws as a quarterback. If Allen can’t see it, fine — but his opponents are, and they’re one botched Falcons fourth quarter away from an 0-3 start to their season.
