Heading into free agency on the other side of 30, Jameis Winston knows he must refine his game.
In order to do so, he's looking to some of the greats at taking care of the football.
"Honestly, the quarterbacks I've been watching this offseason have been Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson because I think they do a good job of limiting their own critical errors," Winston said recently on the Bussin' With The Boys podcast. "Early on in both of their careers, you see the flashy. They show you they can make a play when it's time to make a play.
"But sometimes they play games where you're just like, 'Man, they have took 18 consecutive checkdowns.' And I think that's the part of my game I have to really master. I know I can win a shootout. I know I can go out there and surgically dissect any defense that comes my way. But now the key to my game, to me actually elongating my career, is winning football games and protecting our team to the best ability I can."
While Rodgers endured a tough year all around with the New York Jets and Wilson tapered off mightily for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the two have proven incredibly stingy with interceptions over the course of their careers.
Wilson has limited his INTs to single-digits in eight of his 13 seasons, while Rodgers boasts an inane touchdown-to-interception ratio of 503:116 in his career.
Winston? Not so much.
Afforded extended action with the Cleveland Browns last season due to Deshaun Watson's Achilles injury, Winston provided the typical up-and-down mayhem he's become known for.
He threw 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in seven starts with a 2-5 record. Across all seven seasons in which he's hit at least that number of starts, Winston has thrown double-digit INTs in six of them.
His most famous instance came in 2019, when the then-Tampa Bay Buccaneer led the NFL with 5,109 receiving yards en route to becoming the founding (and only) member of the 30-30 club with 33 TDs and 30 INTs.
The 2024 version of Winston's wild ride featured much the same high highs and low lows, often in rapid succession. He followed up his first start, a 334-yard, three-TD masterpiece, with a three-pick loss in which Cleveland mustered just 10 points. Winston compiled 395 yards and two passing scores the game after that.
In a Week 13 prime-time contest against the Broncos, Winston ignited for 497 passing yards, a Browns franchise record, and four touchdowns -- six if you count the ones he threw to Denver. Two of his three INTs were returned for touchdowns, with the final one stopped short of another score only when linebacker Cody Barton was caught from behind after sprinting free for 56 yards.
He lost his starting role after another three-INT performance in Week 15, his 14th career game turning it over at least three times through the air.
Ten years into his career, Winston is a chaos merchant who both giveth and taketh away. He won only two games for the Browns and committed countless miscues, but he turned a stagnant Browns offense exciting and dangerous and helped players like wide receiver Jerry Jeudy look downright unstoppable.
It's unlikely he can entirely change who he is once the adrenaline gets pumping, no matter how much film he digests, but that will be the goal.
If he can attain it, a player of Winston's caliber suddenly stanching the turnover flow would make for a steal of a signing.
