It sure feels like things are spiraling for the New Orleans Saints after their 1-2 start, which would have been 0-3 had the Atlanta Falcons held on to a surprisingly tenuous 16-point lead in Week 1. And a lot of the blame falls on Saints quarterback Jameis Winston. He’s struggled to connect with one of the NFL’s best pass-catching running backs in Alvin Kamara and thrown more interceptions (5) than touchdown passes (4) three games into the season. The growing list of injuries he’s racking up doesn’t help his case.
Look at how the Saints’ possessions have ended through three games. Out of their 37 drives, just six have ended with touchdowns, and five with field goal tries (including two misses and one block). They’ve punted 16 times, ended nine with a turnover, and have turned it over on downs once. That’s a worryingly low success rate no matter how you slice it.
So, yeah, that’s prompted questions about the wisdom in starting Winston over Andy Dalton. Dalton has his own limitations and downsides, sure, but he’s an experienced arm who can attack more levels of the field more confidently than Winston — and at least we know he’ll protect the football. But Saints coach Dennis Allen has said no change under center is coming, and team leadership isn’t interested in entertaining questions about it either. Defensive end Cameron Jordan demurred when it came up during his postgame press conference.
“I’m going to let you guys question Jameis,” Jordan told ESPN’s Katherine Terrell, when the quarterback’s spotty play came up, instead steering the conversation to his unit’s poor performance against the run. “I’m going to focus on what I can control,” Jordan added.
The team’s other defensive captain, Demario Davis, “politely declined” to speak in the locker room and said he’d catch up with the media after traveling to London ahead of the next game.
It makes sense that they’re giving such, ah, diplomatic responses to the media. Their unit just yielded 146 yards on the ground to the Carolina Panthers in Week 3, averaging 4.7 yards per carry on 31 attempts. Multiple missed tackles created big-play opportunities for a Panthers offense that has put its coach’s job in jeopardy more often than anything else early this season. It’s natural they’d keep attention focused on that.
But man, it’s rough to see guys pass on the opportunity to give their quarterback a vote of confidence. Especially when Jordan and Davis are usually fountains of optimism even after tough losses (Jordan is famous for his “24-hour rule” on social media). With Winston bottoming out and the Saints play calling doing him no favors, the energy surrounding him couldn’t be worse. Let’s hope a trip overseas helps turn things around.
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