BEREA, Ohio — Jameis Winston is riding the same feel-good wave that Joe Flacco did at the end of last season, and loving life as a Cleveland Brown.
Does it means he wants to run it back next season and try to create that magic from the jump?
“Of course,” he said. “In terms of my family, when I think about my family, I think about moving my kids, my wife having to find new friends, I think anytime where you’re able to solidify a role in a place and play good at that place, you like to be home. But however, that’s out of my control. Again, my focus is on, man, one play at a time and just stacking it up day after day-after-day.”
Winston, who will be reunited with his former Saints head coach Sean Payton Monday night in Denver, has quickly become a fan favorite, just like Flacco before him. If he hadn’t won over the fans before Thursday night’s 24-19 upset of the Steelers, he did so in the snow globe by singing Jingle Bells and Let it Snow, leaping into the end zone for a touchdown, and engineering the gamewinning touchdown drive with 57 seconds left.
It doesn’t mean the Browns will definitely re-sign him after the season, but the door will certainly be open. The Browns have some decisions to make in their quarterback room, including Deshaun Watson’s role. But with Watson coming off surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles, the Browns will need to make sure they have another QB1 on hand.
“Well, I’m comfortable everywhere I go; every room I step in, I’m comfortable,” he said. “But no, I mean I’ve truly embraced this city. I love the hard-nose, I love the beautiful trees three months out the year. It’s truly, everywhere I go, I always talk about when I have my introductory, I talk about I’m grateful and it’s as simple as that, man. I’m grateful for the fans challenging me. I’m grateful for the fans lifting me up. I’m grateful for you all challenging me and lifting me up, man. It’s a process that I really take to heart man because I feel like all of us are in this together and that’s just how I approach it.”
Winston, who’s defeated the Ravens and Steelers en route to his 2-2 record, said heading into the game that he discovered early on here that he wasn’t a Browns until the beat the Steelers. Does he feel like one now?
“I do. I really do,” he said. “I’m so grateful that we were able to get last week’s victory man. But man, we’ve got to see that team again. And I think that’s the beautiful thing about this division. That’s the beautiful thing about football is when you see a great battle and you have historic nights, and that was a historic night to me.
“Probably not in NFL history, but that was an historic night. There will definitely be some snow globes coming out soon, but after that it’s recuperate, focus on the main thing. What’s the main thing? Going out there and playing the best football we can play against the Denver Broncos who have a great defense, who have a great young quarterback that’s from Alabama that’s doing some great things and has a great leader in Sean Payton as well.”
Winston was so full of life and energy during that game that he elicited an exuberant “I love you” the reserved Nick Chubb.
“I mean, just that game, what was happening, the environment, the intensity of the game,” Chubb said. “I don’t know. It just kinda happened.”
Winston has brought so much joy, so much booming positivity to the 3-8 Browns that even the quiet Chubb has thrived on it.
“I enjoy it,” he said. “I think our team feeds off of that. We all need a guy on the team that’s like Jameis. He brings that part to our team and everyone appreciates him.”
Winston preaches a one-play-at-a-time mantra, and it led the Browns to their come-from-behind victory over the Steelers, in which he orchestrated the nine-play, 45-yard drive that culminated in Chubb’s 2-yard TD run.
Winston also scored on a 2-yard TD run of his own when he helicoptered into the end zone and slammed into defensive tackle Cam Heyward.
“He’s a competitor, next-play guy,” said Chubb. “No matter what happens in the game, we still have a chance to come back and get a win with him.”
Winston has become an internet sensation with his mic’d up video from the Steelers game, complete with Christmas songs, and diving belly-first into the snow to make snow angels, before flipping over and doing them on his back.
“Man, that’s just who I am and they just happened to get it on camera,” he said. “So if whoever watched it, I hope you enjoyed it, but I think it’s just good for people to see people being who they truly are. So that encourages everyone to be who you are. Jon Batiste has a song that I sang to my boys, ‘you can only be who you are’ and that’s so important. Not worrying about other people, being grateful for other people, but not worrying about what other people got going on, but focusing on how can you be the best version of yourself every day.”
On Monday night in Denver, he’ll be reunited with coach Sean Payton, to whom he credits in part with helping him develop into a more complete quarterback in New Orleans. Winston went 5-2 in 2021 after Drew Brees retired, suffering a season-ending torn ACL and MCL in Week 7 of that year. He battled back the next season under new head coach Dennis Allen, but suffered four fractures in his back in Week 1, and sat out Week 4 and 5 after going 1-2. Andy Dalton took over and he never got another chance.
But he still credits Payton and Brees with helping him learn how to focus on the next play, and minimize his mistakes.
“I would say (Payton’s) aura, his essence,” Winston said. “Him being authentically himself, and I think that warmed me over so much because, from a head-coach perspective, I haven’t really seen that much personality in my head coach. Coach Bruce Arians was a great example. He did have personality. That was my first year with him, so it was kind of like a feel-out process.
“I’ve known him since I grew up. What Sean possessed was a leadership quality that was so important to our team at New Orleans Saints, because I’ve always put Drew (Brees) on this pedestal, and I knew it was Drew’s team. But in a sense, Sean was one of our biggest leaders, our hardest workers. Definitely, he was a leader of among men and that’s how I put it. He was one of the best leaders I’ve been around.”
This season, Winston has watched Payton coach rookie quarterback Bo Nix — who’s high school was 40 minutes away from Winston’s in Alabama — to a 7-5 record, including four victories in their last six games. In that span, he’s thrown 11 touchdowns and 1 interception. Overall, he’s 20th in the NFL with a 89.9 rating, with 16 TDs and 6 INTs.
“I feel like Sean loves challenges and I think that he had an eye for Bo probably two years ago,” Winston said. “If you ask Sean, when did you think Nix was going to be your quarterback, Sean can go to the date and the time is like, ‘I knew at this time Bo was going to be my quarterback.’ I think he just does a good job of playing to what his players’ strengths, coaching to what his players’ strengths are, and we see that with Bo getting better and better every single week.”
But the motivation to beat Payton isn’t what drives him to win on Monday night, the Browns second straight game on national T.V.
“Well, we would be beating the Denver Broncos, right?,” he said. “And I think that’s the main focus. But getting a win in this league is important regardless of who the opponent is. I know this is a great defense. I know that it’s a young kid from Alabama (Bo Nix) that’s playing some great football right now. So I think that would be an important win for the Cleveland Browns to go and scratch away a win in Denver.”
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