New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston has heard the question often enough to know what is really being asked. After a game and three quarters without a touchdown, and with a couple of throws to Isaiah Likely that never arrived, the old label is back in circulation: Big arm, volatile results, and a QB who may no longer have what he once did.
Winston does not accept the premise.
"I know what I'm capable of, but also I know what's required of me," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I can make all the throws. I can do anything I put my mind to. I'm blessed to that point. But at the same time, my job is to give the team the best chance to win."
That job, he made clear, is no longer a backup's job. When a reporter framed a question around the reps
backups receive, Winston stopped the thought before it could become an excuse.
"You keep saying backup. I'm not a backup now, no more. I'm the starter," he said. "I'm getting the first-team reps. The majority of them now, obviously."
The film still has unfinished business. Winston called Likely a tight end with real football savvy and said the two are working after practice to get on the same page. The misses, in his telling, are chemistry that has not arrived yet, not an arm that has gone missing.
"This is still something in the making. You've got to keep getting better at it," Winston said. "My job is to get the playmakers the ball. So, we're having conversations. We're thugging it out. And we're doing whatever is required for us to have some success, to complete some passes together."
He also pushed back on the idea that a managed game is evidence the arm has faded. Winston said people are used to him throwing for 500 yards and throwing interceptions, and that a quieter win invites a different set of questions. He pointed to two trips inside the 5-yard line as the part of the tape he wants to build on.
"I want to score touchdowns. Like, it's required. It really -- I'm so encouraged because we were inside the 5-yard line twice. Right? And that's what I talk about, building on the positives and eliminating the negatives," he said. "We're not going to win a lot of games moving backwards. Right? So, we want to make sure that we finish drives with six."
For Winston, the standard sits beyond the next box score. He described success as glorifying God, leading teammates, and being a better husband and father, with winning games and Super Bowls as the football version of that standard. He wants to be remembered for winning Super Bowl 61.
Until then, the work is the throws Winston and Likely still owe each other, and the red-zone chances the Giants have already shown they can reach.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants' Jameis Winston brushed off concerns about his arm strength
