Giants preparing for major playbook changes with Jameis Winston leading offense: ‘We know who he is’

The time for the jokes between Matt Nagy and Jameis Winston about his 30-touchdown, 30-interception season is over. 

Winston is no longer the Giants’ tension-breaking backup quarterback. With Jaxson Dart sidelined for the season and headed for knee surgery, Winston is the starter for whom Nagy is calling plays, meaning a revision of the playbook is underway ahead of Sunday’s game against the Titans. 

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“The biggest thing is, when we first got started, we wanted to be prepared to have multiple styles of offense,” Nagy said. “So, if something like this does happen, it doesn’t put you in a hole where it changes everything.” 

Some degree of change is unavoidable. 

Goodbye to Dart’s RPOs and play-extending scrambling. Hello to Winston’s strong arm and maybe more deep throws like the why-not chucks to Malik Nabers and Malachi Fields (both incompletions) against the Rams when his first reads were covered. 

Unlike some teams with similar-style backups — the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley on the mobile end of the spectrum, and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco on the pocket end — the Giants paired an odd couple. 

“There might be a couple concepts where you are able to do some different things to his strengths,” Nagy said. “Thank God he’s been here for all OTAs and training camp. Calling a play, understanding why a play is in, his eyes go where our eyes go. He has his strengths on certain routes that he throws. Maybe he does it slightly better than Jaxson, maybe he doesn’t.” 

Winston is 11 years removed from being the No. 1 pick in the draft and seven years removed from leading the league in passing yards (5,109) and interceptions (30) to go with 33 touchdowns for the 2019 Buccaneers. He has made just 19 starts (8-11) since the Buccaneers replaced him with a free agent named Tom Brady — but has 26 interceptions and an alarming 3.6 interception rate in 37 games. 

The Giants already wanted to be a run-dominant offense. The run-pass balance could sway even more in the direction of feeding Cam Skattebo, Najee Harris, Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary. 

“We know who he is,” Nagy said. “We talked all training camp about protecting the football. There’s a lot of feast or famine with him. We’ve joked over time about the 30 touchdowns and 30 picks, but now, here it is. Ball security is paramount with the type of team that we have. He knows that. Just play his game, be who he is, and we have to help him as a staff.” 

Winston stayed after Thursday’s practice throwing extra routes with Nabers, Darnell Mooney and Fields. 

“He had a great day of practice,” Skattebo said. “I appreciate him for his leadership. The way guys came in and out of the huddle, on and off the field, that was kind of an emphasis today. He took control of that and made sure the guys were locked in.” 

Winston looked completely out of sync off the bench against the Rams, skipping and sailing passes en route to a 37.7 QB rating. He was pressured 17 times on 29 dropbacks. 

“I don’t look at it as I need to do more,” Skattebo said. “I look at it as I get to do more.” 

Was that performance against the Rams just an example of Bad Jameis compared to Good Jameis (366 passing yards and two touchdowns in a start against the Lions last season)? Or was there more to excuse? 

“There’s a part of the [game script] that we do lose any way you look at it,” Nagy said. “There are areas of [Dart’s] game that, when you lose him, you lose that part of the playbook. But it’s not a massive number to where you can’t run an offense.” 

The other mitigating factor was timing. 

Winston’s practice snap count was limited behind Dart during the first two weeks of the regular season because NFL coaches still haven’t figured out how to find more backup snaps under a time crunch. 

So, when Winston entered the game, the Giants tried to eliminate or reduce the shifts and motions attached to some plays. It seemed to confuse other skill players, however. 

“Now [Winston is] thrown into the mix seven plays in and running these plays that you didn’t run all week,” Nagy said, “You did mentally, but you didn’t timing-wise. If there’s something on the play where we could make it easier for him to play faster and have less decisions, we wanted to do that. But now we get to have a full week of prep, and he gets to get throws on time, which helps.”