A few weeks after losing young franchise quarterback Jaxson Dart for the season, the New York Giants sent a fifth-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings for J.J. McCarthy, whom they’d selected 10th overall in 2024 to serve as the franchise quarterback of the future. Ostensibly, the Giants made the move with an eye at upgrading the backup quarterback position behind Winston, but New York certainly wouldn’t complain if he proved better than the veteran.
In recent weeks, though, Winston has been solid, putting together back-to-back performances to lead to one win and one tie to keep the Giants atop the NFC East. The entire division has been pretty unconvincing, but a division lead is a division lead, and Winston has ben playing well. He’s recorded at least 20 FPTS in each of his last two games, making him fantasy-viable.
Winston is still only rostered in 6% of Yahoo Sports fantasy leagues, but with a matchup against one of his former teams (the New Orleans Saints) on the docket this weekend, he could be worth a look.
Results and Usage
Winston’s first start of the season, in Week 3 against the Tennessee Titans, was a low-score, low-usage game played in pouring rain, so Winston wouldn’t have been fantasy-viable in that start. However, each of New York’s last two games have been shootouts, so he attempted 29 passes in the Week 4 win over the Arizona Cardinals and 54 in the Week 5 overtime tie against the Washington Commanders. The latter game set a new career high for passing attempts in a game.
In Week 5, Winston completed 61.1% of those 54 passes for 326 yards and three touchdowns, adding another five carries for 27 yards. He’s still had an unimpressive season overall, ranking 30th among 40 qualified quarterbacks by Pro Football Focus’ standards and completing passes at a rate 3.9 percentage points lower than expected, the fifth-worst rate in the league. Winston also ranks dead last in on-target rate, though he hasn’t made a ton of bad throws and has gotten somewhat unlucky that receivers have dropped 4.5% of his targets.
Future Outlook
Winston could continue to have volume on his side. Though the Giants have been a run-reliant team so far, those numbers were somewhat skewed by both the bad-weather Tennessee contest and Dart’s mobility before he went down. New York had 165 rushing yards in Week 1 with Dart under center and 138 in the rainy game; otherwise, the 103 yards that it recorded against the Commanders represented a season-high. It’s not like the Giants’ backs have been efficient; the team as a whole ranks just 24th in yards per attempt, and Cam Skattebo ranks 12th-to-last among qualified running backs in yards over expectation per attempt, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. He’s also fumbled four times, including one particularly costly error late in overtime against Washington that effectively cost New York the win.
I’m pretty high on Winston’s weapons. Despite missing much of Week 2 after dislocating his shoulder, Malik Nabers has had a nice bounce-back season after tearing his ACL in 2025. He has recorded back-to-back 100-yard games, ranking 19th among all wideouts by PFF’s grades. Nabers and Darnell Mooney have both averaged at least three yards of separation per targeted route, which is critical for an aggressive but not overly accurate quarterback like Winston. Plus, tight end Isaiah Likely has emerged as one of the league’s best this season, helping his quarterbacks record a 103.1 passer rating when targeted.
This season, the Saints have had a roughly average secondary, giving up the 14th-fewest FPTS per game to opposing quarterbacks. New Orleans has also allowed the 14th-fewest yards, and it’s conceded the 12th-most touchdowns while recording only one interception. On a per-play basis, the Saints have been more gettable, giving up the fourth-highest completion percentage, the sixth-most adjusted yards per attempt, and the fourth-highest passer rating. The better of New Orleans’ starting corners, Kool-Aid McKinstry, has given up a 98.5 passer rating in coverage. It’s possible that the Giants could choose to run the ball more against the Saints’ mediocre front seven, but Winston is worth a start in deeper leagues, especially for Joe Burrow or Jared Goff managers whose typical starter is on bye.
