The New Orleans Saints had a rough day. Jameis Winston in particular had a rough day, lobbing two interceptions to the Carolina Panthers defense. That hardly means he’s reverted to his turnover-prone Tampa Bay Buccaneers days, though — on Sunday, he faced a greater challenge than he ever saw wearing red and pewter.
ESPN’s tracking found that Winston was pressured on 18 of 28 dropbacks, a rate of 64%. That’s the highest pressure rate Winston has experienced in the NFL, and the third-highest rate any quarterback has faced since tracking began in 2009. For context, Patrick Mahomes was pressured on 52% of his dropbacks in the Chiefs’ infamous Super Bowl loss (ironically, to Tampa Bay), which was talked about all offseason as the worst game an offensive line had played in years. The Saints were significantly worse on Sunday.
It means Winston was already rushed through his progressions and hurried into making poor decisions on two-thirds of his dropbacks in Week 2. It’s no wonder he turned the ball over a few times; what’s almost impressive is that he didn’t give the ball away even more frequently in the face of that pressure. He’s as aware as anyone of his risk-prone reputation, and he took pride in protecting the ball a week ago. But some of his bad habits returned when playing under duress.
The good news is Sean Payton has time to work on that. Payton and Winston each acknowledged the protection issues postgame, pointing to breakdowns in communication that should have corrected blocking assignments and kept bought more time for Winston’s receivers to work their way downfield. Having everyone in sync and committed to repairing an obvious problem could help expedite that process. We saw just last week what happens when the Saints keep Winston clean. With 15 more games to play, there’s plenty of time for the Saints to cure what’s ailing them and get back on schedule.
