The New Orleans Saints welcome the Cleveland Browns into the Caesars Superdome in a month, and Jameis Winston may be the Browns’ starting quarterback when that game rolls around.
Winston has spent most of his time in Cleveland as Deshaun Watson’s backup. That changed Sunday. The Browns opted to make Dorian Thompson-Robinson the backup ahead of their game against the Cincinnati Bengals and push Winston to the emergency quarterback role.
An emergency happened. Watson went down with a season-ending Achilles injury, and Thompson-Robinson injured a finger on his throwing hand. This led to Winston entering the game at quarterback.
Thompson-Robinson’s injury isn’t believed to be major, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, and his availability is up in the air right now. If Winston starts the next game and performs well enough, Winston could hold on to that starting spot. That would put him in line to start against New Orleans.
Winston spent four years with the Saints before going to Cleveland. He didn’t depart on the best terms. He lost his job to Andy Dalton due to injury in 2022. Winston later said he was told he wouldn’t have lost his job if he stepped away to recover. He was made false promises by Dennis Allen.
Ironically, Winston’s last play in New Orleans was a middle finger to Allen. Winston and the team opted to not kneel and instead get Jamaal Williams a touchdown.
Allen clearly wasn’t a fan of that by his postgame actions and press conference. That was Winston’s last play in New Orleans until possibly Week 11.
