Jameis Winston delivers two dimes to Marquez Callaway in the first quarter
Jamies Winston is out here making a strong case to be the New Orleans Saints starter at quarterback come Week 1. Less than three minutes into Monday night’s preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Winston delivered an absolute dime to Marquez Callaway, good for a 43-yard touchdown strike.
But Winston and Callaway weren’t finished there. Just two drives later, the two connected on a 30-yard touchdown pass. On both touchdown catches, Callaway displayed amazing ball location skills. Fighting off a pass interference on the first one and making a spectacular one-handed catch on the second.
Jamies Winston’s battle
The Saints are in the middle of an epic quarterback battle between Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill. Winston gets the nod over Hill to start Tuesday’s preseason matchup. However, it was Hill who had QB1 responsibilities in the Saints Week 1 preseason loss against the Ravens. In that game Winston finished 7-of-12 for 96 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He was the only one of the three Saints quarterbacks to throw a touchdown in the game.
Originally the first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2015, Winston sign with the Saints an offseason ago in hopes to resurrect his career. In his last season as a starter with the Bucs, Winston led the NFL in passing yards and had 33 touchdown passes. But he was a turnover machine recording 30 interceptions. It was the first time in NFL history that a quarterback threw for at least 30 touchdowns and interceptions in the same season.
Filling the void at receiver
The other major storyline for this Saints is who is going to pick up the slack at receiver while All-Pro wideout Michael Thomas recovers from ankle surgery. and so far in both games, Marquez Callaway looks up to the challenge. Against the Ravens, he caught three catches for 61 yards on four targets, all from Taysom Hill.
Although this is this tandems first field action together they are putting on a show. So far Winston is 9-of-10 for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Callaway has five of those completions for 104 yards and both touchdowns. If these two keep up this level of performance we can expect both of them to secure starting positions for the Saints this year.