Giants sign gunslinger Jameis Winston to fill QB vacancy

Pat Leonard, New York Daily News on Mar 21, 2025

Published in Football

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NEW YORK — Jameis Winston is a Giant.

After Matthew Stafford chose the Rams over a trade to New York and with Aaron Rodgers visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers, Joe Schoen is signing the gunslinger former No. 1 overall pick Winston to finally add a veteran quarterback to the NFL’s 31st ranked offense.

Winston’s contract reportedly is a two-year, $8 million deal.

The 11-year veteran has thrown 154 touchdown passes and 111 interceptions in 105 career games and 87 starts. The Giants are his fourth team.

He posted a 2-5 record for the Cleveland Browns last season as Deshaun Watson’s backup with 2,121 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 61.1 completion percentage.

He put in five seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and four with the New Orleans Saints before his one year in Cleveland. Now it’s off to the Big Apple.

“Start spreading the neWs,” Winston tweeted with a picture of an apple on Friday night, with a capital ‘W’ indicating the wins he aims to bring.

Winston, 31, always has had the talent to push the ball around and down the field to make plays and score points. So that’s good news for Malik Nabers’ stat line. But he also struggles badly with turnovers.

In 2019 with Tampa, Winston threw for 5,109 yards, 33 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. That team went 7-9. He is 36-51 for his career.

“He’s gonna come in straight up and tell you, ‘Look, you know what I’m on,” Saints edge rusher Cam Jordan said on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast of Winston’s arrival to New Orleans in 2020. “He walked into the building when we first signed him, he was like ‘Hey, I’m bombs over the top. Or maybe I’m Bombs over Baghdad. It was something crazy. … And he’d say ‘Lord, please deliver me from these interceptions.’ ”

Adding only Winston to the quarterback room reinforces that the Giants are heavy favorites to select a quarterback in April’s NFL draft, potentially as high as No. 3 overall.

Schoen and coach Brian Daboll have waited on Rodgers to make a decision, but the lack of quality and clarity at quarterback for this franchise the past couple weeks has been embarrassing.

They made an aggressive attempt to trade for Stafford at the NFL combine, as did the Las Vegas Raiders, only for Stafford to choose a return to Los Angeles with the Rams.

Rodgers was Plan B, but he has not given the Giants an answer with the Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, Giants and retirement all options on the table.

So the Giants hosted Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson and Winston on free-agent visits in the past week and half, and they even planned a Zoom call with Mason Rudolph that never happened.

Then, once the Vikings publicly re-committed to second-year pro J.J. McCarthy as their franchise QB, Rodgers, 41, popped up on a Friday visit to the Steelers’ facility to meet with coach Mike Tomlin and GM Omar Khan, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

It’s still possible the recently released Jets quarterback could make an in-person visit to the Giants. He owns a house in Cedar Grove, N.J., so it would not be difficult for him to stop in East Rutherford, N.J.

Multiple reports suggested on Friday night that Winston’s signing did not impact the Giants’ pursuit of Rodgers, either. So the team is clearly still hoping the four-time MVP will choose them.

That doesn’t appear likely, however. So they moved on to Winston, who at least is known to be a great locker room influence who trusts his teammates — even if his frequent interceptions may lead to some broken tablets by Daboll on the sideline.

“What he brings to practice is incredible positive energy,” former NFL wide receiver Bennie Fowler said. “Like ‘We’re gonna win this game’ energy, or ‘I’m gonna throw this ball.’ And then whatever the play is in the huddle, if he likes his matchup, that’s who he’s throwing the ball to.

“Like, ‘Hey, I’m coming to you, I like you on this route. I don’t care what the coverage is,’ ” he continued. “Sometimes that’ll get him into trouble, and sometimes you can make a play.”