What You Need to Know:

• Winston tore his left ACL in Week 8 of last season. It doesn’t appear he needed anything else in the knee repaired during that surgery, though.
• Saints HC Dennis Allen said Wednesday that QB Jameis Winston's surgically repaired knee is no longer a concern.
• Winston has played in just 11 games over the past 2 years, including just 6 full starts.
• The last time we saw him on the field for a full season, Winston led the NFL in pass attempts and yards, and ranked 3rd among QBs in total fantasy points. He also led the league with 30 INTs that season and ranked just 14th in fantasy points per pass attempt.
• The 2021 Saints passed at the league’s 3rd-lowest rate. They attempted a pass or took a sack on just 51.5% of offensive plays.
• Winston ranked 15th in fantasy scoring average last season, 13th if you take away the contest he left early. He checked in 2nd in fantasy points per pass attempt.
• That’s because Winston managed an 8.7% TD rate that would have led the league by 1.7 percentage points had he qualified. Only 25 qualifying QB seasons have ever matched or exceeded that mark. Winston’s previous high was 5.3% with the 2019 Bucs.
• Winston’s 59% completion rate with the 2021 Saints marked his lowest since his 2015 rookie campaign. Among 39 QBs with at least 150 dropbacks, Pro Football Focus graded him 23rd as a passer (3 spots ahead of new backup Andy Dalton).
• The 2021 Saints didn’t have a single player garner more than 16.7% target share. WR Marquez Callaway led that category, with RB Alvin Kamara, WR Deonte Harris and WR Tre’Quan Smith following (and the only others to crack 50 targets).
• The team expects WR Michael Thomas back for this season after an ankle injury cost him most of the past 2 years. The Saints also moved up in Round 1 to draft Chris Olave and signed Jarvis Landry in free agency. The team also re-signed Smith and returns Callaway.
• Winston was back on the field for OTAs, though multiple reports had him operating with a noticeable limp.
• This study didn’t find any meaningful downturn in production from QBs after ACL injuries. Our own look back at QB ACL tears last offseason turned up similar results.
• HC Sean Payton moved on this offseason. The team returns OC Pete Carmichael and passing-game coordinator/QBs coach Ronald Curry from last year, though.
• The Saints have moved on from LT Terron Armstead, who left for Miami in free agency. Injury limited him to less than half of last year’s offensive snaps, but PFF graded him 4th-best at the position in pass-blocking. New Orleans drafted Trevor Penning in Round 1 to replace him. The team also gets G Andrus Peat back after he lost three-quarters of last season to a pectoral tear.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Counting on Winston has a cornerstone for any 2022 fantasy football team wouldn’t be a good idea, but no one is doing that. Even best-ball drafts – which rely only on a player’s best weeks – have Winston going 18th among QBs on FFPC as of this writing and 20th on Underdog. Even at that level, however, he doesn’t look particularly attractive. The knee, plus inconsistent production when he has been healthy, plus an iffy offense incorporating new pass-catchers adds at least as much risk as Winston has upside. The unanswerable question of what we can expect from Michael Thomas in his return only further hurts Winston’s attractiveness for best-ball lineups.