There is a trickle of hope in the Tri-State Area regarding the New York Giants and their prospects moving forward. John Harbuagh, who once guided the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl championship, has replaced Brian Daboll as their head coach, and they have some young building blocks such as wide receiver Malik Nabers, running back Cam Skattebo and pass rushers Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns.
The Giants are pinning a good amount of their hopes on quarterback Jaxson Dart, who showed some promise this season as a rookie. But they also have a solid backup in Jameis Winston, who just completed his 12th season in the NFL.
On Monday, Winston made an appearance on “Pardon My Take,” and he gave a very certain and exact statement about how much longer he wants to remain in the league.
“I would love to play 12 years, right? And that’s just 12,” Winston said.
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New York also still has Russell Wilson as another option behind Dart, but he is about to become a free agent, and at age 37, he has clearly seen better days. He started the first three games of this season, but he threw three interceptions and completed just 59.1% of his pass attempts in those games, and during his third start, fans at MetLife Stadium booed him and called for Dart to replace him.
Winston started under center in Week 11 and Week 12 when Dart was in concussion protocol, and while he completed just 37 of 65 pass attempts in those games, he threw for 567 yards. He has always been able to rack up yardage, but having him at quarterback has always been something of a rollercoaster ride.
After starring at Florida State University, he was the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. He threw for over 4,000 yards in both of his first two seasons, and in 2019, he became one of a handful of signal-callers who have ever thrown for at least 5,000 yards in a single season.
That year, he led the league with 5,109 passing yards and also threw 33 touchdown passes, but he also led everyone with 30 interceptions. For his career, he has a 3.5% interception rate, which is quite high.
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But at age 32, Winston should continue to be serviceable as a QB2, especially when he’s paired with the type of promising young talent the Giants have at the offensive skill positions. It seems unthinkable that he will play exactly 12 more seasons in the NFL, but stranger things have happened.
For the first time in several years, Giants fans have been allowing themselves to hope for better days soon. If Dart is to get hurt again next season, Winston could make another cameo appearance as the team looks to return to relevance.
He has one more season remaining on his current contract at a base salary of $3.95 million and a salary cap hit of $5 million, according to spotrac.com.
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