Giants should sign Jameis Winston and bring fun back to an organization lacking it
Jameis Winston looks on before a game between the Browns and Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Jan. 4, 2025 in Baltimore. Credit: Getty Images
The Giants are meeting with another free agent quarterback on Tuesday and this time it’s the fun one.
Good. Jameis Winston is exactly what they need at this point to bring some joy to what has for too long been an odious process that has sunk the franchise into a deep pall.
Aaron Rodgers would be the best choice of the lot based solely on his quarterbacking abilities. He can still deliver passes on target and read defenses better than most of the $50 million-a-year players out there. But convincing him to play in East Rutherford was always going to be the biggest challenge, seconded only by the immense baggage he would bring with him that includes, in no particular order, his age, his health, his extracurriculars, and his undetermined willingness to mentor a yet-to-be-drafted rookie who might be a two-game losing streak away from usurping him as starter. That doesn’t even factor in the whole Jets dynamic. No, Rodgers would be just as wrong for the Giants as the Giants would be for him.
Russell Wilson? He’s the steady one. Solid. The Giants would know exactly what they were getting: A professional whose upbeat attitude will remain undaunted no matter the situation but one whose best football is behind him. He’d be an improvement over what they had, but probably not enough to help them win any serious number of games. He’s the safe pick, the option it would have been nice to have on the roster, say, last year. But he isn’t the one for these Giants.
Then there’s Joe Flacco, the dull one. Not a slight on him, he’s a lovely man, but he delivers no jolt. He’d be a fine quarterback to sign if the Giants knew for sure who their rookie was going to be and if they thought for a moment they had the leeway to start the season with the kid on the field. Flacco could have set the example on how to be a pro in meetings and film studies and games, and maybe played a few snaps if needed. But the Giants aren’t there yet and relying on him to win early — which may be needed to save jobs — isn’t much of a plan.
Which leaves Winston, the latest of the options to visit with the Giants and the best for what is currently ailing them.
This is an organization in desperate need of the uplift in spirit that Winston can deliver. He is always entertaining. He might throw for 400 yards and three touchdowns or he might have three interceptions and a fumble. Heck, he might have all of that in the same game sometimes. So what? It’ll be watchable and exciting, two things the Giants haven’t been for a long time.
As for helping that looming rookie, Winston may not always be the example of how things ought to be done in terms of passing decisions, but that’s OK too. Think of him not as a stoic father figure to that young impressionable player but as the wild uncle who drops into town from time to time with stories of his gonzo adventures. He’ll be the "do as I say, not necessarily as I do" example for the quarterback in waiting. He’ll make the mistakes so that the kid can learn the lessons.
Might some of his wild passes cause Brian Daboll to hemorrhage from his eyeballs on the sideline? Perhaps. But he’ll also deliver some plays that make the coach smile and bring him back to that high-fiving, bro-hugging, lovable lug he was in 2022 when he won Coach of the Year and a playoff game. Before he became too dour and serious. Before this all became so dismal and gray.
The last we saw of Winston — after even his stint as quarterback of the Browns — was during the lead-up to the Super Bowl when he was an omnipresent quasi-broadcaster for Fox Sports in New Orleans.
Jameis Winston makes his way through the crowd on the field inside the Caesars Superdome during the Super Bowl Opening Night on Feb. 3, 2025 in New Orleans. Credit: Getty Images
He was the one tossing W-shaped cookies to the players so they could follow the guidance from his most viral pregame speech and “eat a W.” He was the one who asked Saquon Barkley where he should sign, to which the Eagles running back presciently noted: “New York needs a quarterback.” He was the one holding up the line at Cafe Du Monde so he could get a special order of beignets — once again W-shaped — and then leading a group of powdered sugar-coated customers on an improvised French Quarter parade.
He was a natural as grand marshal that day.
The Giants need someone who can do that now, lead them on a little bit of a march, but more significantly lift their spirits and take them out of this dark, dark place.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see Malik Nabers smiling? Don’t we deserve to see what Brian Burns can do on a winning team for the first time in his career ? Shouldn’t the Giants want to prove they have the offensive line and receiver weapons they think they do, the ones they brought back from last year, and show the world that they can succeed when they get the proper juice from the most critical position on the team?
Winston can give them that.
He’s not what they needed back then, last year, when they were trying to find backups for Daniel Jones and landed on Drew Lock. He’s probably not what they’ll need looking ahead, either. But for right now, at this precarious and increasingly glum moment in Giants history, he is the quarterback that they require.
He’s the fun one.
The Giants should sign him and have fun with him.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
