The 2025 offseason has begun, however, free agency is still a little while away as teams wrap up their early processes before working on new signings. One of those early offseason processes was head coach hirings for many teams, including the New Orleans Saints who hired Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator Kellen Moore as theirs.
Now the waiting period begins until the second week of March when free agency starts up. This gives us an opportunity to look back at the Saints’ 2024 offseason, processing their previous signings and departures to analyze whether or not they were good decisions. One such departure was quarterback Jameis Winston, so let’s take a look at his 2024 season and new contract:
Free agent contract
Winston signed with the Cleveland Browns as a backup quarterback, and his contract was for one year, $4 million total. The contract was split up as $1.21 million base salary in 2024 with $558,000 as a prorated signing bonus, and then a $2.23 million as a 2025 cap hit in a void year. He is now a free agent once again in the 2025 offseason, but the Browns will be on the hook for a little bit of the initial contract regardless.
Snap counts
Jameis Winston has had an intriguing career so far when it comes to his snaps, as after he left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, he has either been a starter or a priority backup option. Here are his snap counts for each season of his career, only including games he was active for:
- 2015: 100% (1090)
- 2016: 99% (1119)
- 2017: 90% (790)
- 2018: 88% (688)
- 2019: 99% (1128)
- 2020: 21% (54, four games played)
- 2021: 84% (371, seven games played)
- 2022: 99% (196, three games played)
- 2023: 17% (76, seven games played)
- 2024: 60% (504, 12 games played)
2024 season review
2024 was a strong season for Winston when it comes to snap counts, as he got the most snaps he has had in a year since 2019. When Deshaun Watson was injured, Winston was the primary backup who took over, and he did pretty much what we have all come to expect of him, electrify the offense and make things interesting, whether that is good or bad.
He had seven starts in 12 games, completing 181 of his 296 attempts (61.1%) for 2,121 yards, 13 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and 103 first downs with a 55.5 QBR and 80.6 passer efficiency rating. He was sacked quite often as well, taking 24 sacks for 130 yards. Overall not a bad year for him, but pretty on-par for his type of play style.
Report card grade
The Saints quarterback dilemma was in full effect this season, with Derek Carr performing around league average at best, and dealing with a litany of injuries along the way, playing only 10 games and 604 snaps. Spencer Rattler looked promising, who we may not have seen if Winston were here this season, but it is also worth noting that Rattler got thrown into the fire and had some real difficulty at times as well.
Winston would have been a quality backup for the Saints in 2024, and likely a spot starter. Even now, people are calling to bring him back for 2025, and that is an understandable standpoint if the Saints were to move on from Carr and just let things play out as they will, working towards the future.
Regardless, they have the opportunity to get him back if they wish now, and did not lose out on a whole lot, as he likely would not have changed the trajectory of the season, despite being a locker-room favorite.
Saints Grade for allowing departure: C+