
His contract automatically voids if he is on the roster on the last day of the 2021 league year, which would give the Saints about $3 million in dead money if he leaves for another team. Winston signed a one-year deal with the Saints in 2021 with a base salary of $1 million and $6.5 million in “not likely to be earned” incentives. the Buccaneers, 📹 by Kevin Wilk /Lt3aH4hgRX Winston has recently progressed to running, according to videos posted by his team on social media.įree-agent-to-be QB Jameis Winston is running today for the first time since undergoing surgery on the left ACL he tore Oct. In fact, all signs point to Winston and most, if not all, of the Saints’ major players being ready for training camp if all goes as expected this offseason. 31, and have noted that his rehab is on track. The Saints feel Winston played well prior to going down with an ACL tear on Oct. We’ll go through the process here and see what happens,” said Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, who admitted that it would be difficult to go into the draft without a quarterback plan in place considering they draft at No. “Jameis is certainly an option for us, and hopefully we’re an option for him as well.
#Jameis winston salary free#
1 out of their in-house free agents, but right now, he’s just one potential option for what the Saints might do at quarterback in 2022. If they decide to go that route, Winston likely will be priority No. But re-signing Winston makes the most sense for the Saints from a financial standpoint, especially considering they’ll likely need draft capital to bolster their wide receiver room. We’ll just have to wait and see how the situation develops.Here’s what the Saints could do with a handful of their free agents and what the price could look like.Ī splashy trade for someone like Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers or Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson would make headlines, and Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has been talked about as a trade candidate for months. They’ll have options in free agency and in the 2023 NFL draft, and it’s possible some trade candidates emerge around the league.

Either way, it sure looks like the Saints will be in the market for a quarterback. That’s kind of hard to believe after seeing how quickly Allen set him aside in 2022, followed by the decision to stick with Dalton for most of the season. Or maybe we’re wrong, and the team intends to bring Winston back for the 2023 season. Either way Winston gets into the free agency market at the same time as everyone else. The Saints are over the projected 2023 salary cap by more than $50 million right now, so they may opt to make it a clean cut.

If they released him early with a post-June 1 designation they’d nearly triple their savings (up to $12.8 million) but none of it would free up until after that date, at which point it could be used to sign the rookie draft class or go towards midsummer free agent pickups. So what are their options? Winston currently has a $15.6 million salary cap hit for 2023, but releasing or trading him prior to June 1 would save the team $4.4 million against the cap. It’s a shame that things haven’t worked out for him after he came to New Orleans looking to turn his career around, but injuries and subpar play led to coaching decisions that favored other options.

Winston is the only Saints quarterback under contract for 2023, but it appears the team is readying to move on from him. The move suggests Allen and the Saints have already seen everything they need to see from the veteran quarterback, between his 70-plus starts with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his three years in the facility with New Orleans. So it says a lot that Jameis Winston will remain sidelined for the last Saints game of the season. So-called meaningless games like this are often opportunities to evaluate players with the future in mind. Both the Saints and the Panthers have been eliminated from playoff contention, which makes it a bit of a curious move. New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen announced Monday that he’ll stick with Andy Dalton at quarterback in Week 18’s regular season finale with the Carolina Panthers.
