The injuries continue to pile up for the Saints as Jameis Winston went down vs the Bucs on Sunday afternoon. Winston was tackled by the horsecollar by his former teammate Devin White with 12:44 in the second quarter. He tried to get back up on his own power but needed the assistance of the Saints trainers to get to the blue medical tent. It appeared to be an injury in his left knee as he was assisted off the field.
Teammates Tre’Quan Smith, Terron Armstead, and Alvin Kamara checked in on Winston as he was in the tent and helped him into the cart, so he could be examined in the locker room. Winston was then taken to a nearby hospital for a MRI during the game.
The initial thought was that Winston had a high ankle sprain to a MCL sprain and would miss 2-4 weeks. As more information was released it was reported that there was a fear that Winston had ligament damage, with an ACL injury with some damage to his MCL. The injury itself is in fact a torn ACL with damage to his MCL which puts him out for the rest of the year.
Winston means a lot to the team as Sean Payton said during the post game press conference that he cried when he saw Jameis walk into the locker room. Just a gut wrenching injury as quarterback Trevor Siemian put it. Says this win was for Jameis.
Jameis signed a one year contract over the offseason with the Saints, so he could have potentially played his last snap for the Saints if he doesn’t come back. I doubt Sean Payton doesn’t bring him back though and that’s far down the line.
As for who will fill in for Winston the Saints have options. Trevor Siemian who just finished the game vs Tampa Bay has been the Saints gameday backup quarterback in the case of an injury. Entering Sunday’s game he threw 6 passes over the past 3 years, and hadn’t thrown a touchdown since 2017. Siemian threw for 159 yards while going 16/29 and a touchdown pass. The last game he was named as the starter was December 10th of the 2017 season when he was a Denver Bronco. As a starter Siemian is 12-12 from his games from 2016-2017.
Taysom Hill, who is nearing a return and is close to being back according to Nick Underhill, started four games last season and was competing for the starting quarterback job with Winston over the summer and throughout training camp. During his four game stretch as a starter, Taysom three for 834 yards and four touchdowns with four rushing touchdowns as well and went 3-1 in those four games.
Then there is rookie quarterback Ian Book who the Saints selected in the 5th round of the 2021 NFL draft with the 133rd pick. Ian Book has yet to be active for a game this season, now depending on who the quarterback is he could possibly be the gameday backup. If Trevor is the starter from here on out the Book will become the gameday backup while Taysom stays as a flex guy. If Taysom is the starter then Book is likely still inactive.
So the Saints have options on their roster, I wouldn’t say the Saints should or even will go after a quarterback and I doubt they look into it unless things get really bad. The guys they have are fully capable of winning games with this team and with this elite defense.
Payton mentioned that he is satisfied with his quarterback room and the guys they have, meaning don’t expect any quarterback news in terms of a trade or signing. They aren’t interested in Cam Newton or any other quarterbacks at the moment according to a Josina Anderson. The final thing, Sean won’t announce who the starter is till Friday as he did last year. There’s a process they’ll go through and we’ll sit and wait for the announcement to be made.
Written By Kadin Janisch
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