Will the New Orleans Saints start Jameis Winston this week? Head coach Dennis Allen voiced caution against rushing his quarterback onto the field while recovering from back and ankle injuries. With a very brief turnaround between Week 6’s home loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and Week 7’s Thursday night kickoff with the Arizona Cardinals, odds are Winston will be resting with several other injured starters.
“Let’s get Jameis fully healthy and go from there,” Allen replied when asked whether Winston or Andy Dalton would get the nod this week, adding that the team was pleased with what they’ve seen out of Dalton: “Andy’s done a good job when he’s been in there. We’ve produced and scored some points.”
Winston threw for 858 passing yards in the Saints’ first three games, scoring 4 touchdown passes but losing 5 interceptions — and committing 3 fumbles while the team went 1-2 with him at the helm. They’ve gone 1-2 with Dalton under center, too, and though he’s managed just 585 passing yards across three starts Dalton has thrown 3 touchdown passes against a single interception, plus a fumble. They’ve each completed a little more than 63% of their passes.
If you want to dig a little deeper, Winston achieved an adjusted net yards per attempt (ANY/A) of 5.07, which accounts for scoring plays, turnovers, and sacks. Dalton’s producing better at 6.57, which reflects his lower rate of negative plays. That in itself isn’t reason to start any sort of quarterback controversy, and injuries have muddied the picture. We haven’t seen Winston play a game at full health, and Dalton hasn’t had his full complement of receiving talent to work with.
Neither of them have really stepped into a fair situation. So while Allen isn’t ready to name a starter just yet, it sure sounds like Dalton will get another game before the Saints go into a 10-day break between their matchups in Weeks 7 and 8, presumably giving Winston enough time to progress through recovery and practice fully. But maybe Dalton does enough on Thursday night to force Allen’s hand.
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