His first pass as a Buc was intercepted and returned all the way—a welcome-to-the-league pick-six. Later that season, he threw five touchdowns in one game. The pattern was set. He wowed crowds with his daring, and also for being a dope. He gave viral pre-game speeches and made funny memes. He was beloved by his teammates and married his high-school sweetheart. He spoke fervently about his faith. He was suspended for three games for violating the N.F.L.’s personal-conduct policy, after an Uber driver accused him of groping her, another accusation that he denied.
In 2019, he became the first player in N.F.L. history to throw thirty touchdowns and thirty interceptions in the same season. He also led the league in passing yards. His time in Tampa Bay was considered something of a disappointment. It ended when Tom Brady arrived the next year, and Brady led what was essentially the same team to the Super Bowl title. Winston brought the Winston experience to the New Orleans Saints, then to the Cleveland Browns, and finally, last year, to the New York Giants, where he was named the third-string quarterback, behind Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart. Wilson was eventually demoted, making Winston the primary backup. Right before the start of the season, his teammates voted him onto their leadership council. In September, he was in a DoorDash commercial asking if the crab legs were “free ninety-nine.”
When he was a rookie, it had seemed to me that Winston had come to the N.F.L. for a fun time, not a long time. That was eleven years ago.
The Giants’ usual starting quarterback, Jaxson Dart, is twenty-three. He wears eye black smeared under his right eye only—an Anakin Skywalker reference, apparently. Dart went to Ole Miss, a place where the past has been repurposed. There are, after all, different ways of forgetting and moving on.
Dart began last season as Wilson’s backup before establishing himself as the team’s future, though there have been some concerns about his head. For starters, he is not inclined to protect it. (“We’re not playing soccer out here,” he said once, when asked about his very physical—some would say reckless—style of play.) And he is still learning to make good decisions amid the high-speed chaos of a typical down. He’s the rare young quarterback who can enter an N.F.L. game and command it immediately. It takes time for experience to accumulate, for patterns to emerge. But Dart seemed to be making progress at the start of the season, and the Giants, with a high-profile new coach, John Harbaugh, soundly beat the Dallas Cowboys in Week One. They seemed in a good position to dominate the weak N.F.C. East. Then, during a game against the Los Angeles Rams, Dart tore up his knee. The injury would require season-ending surgery.
Winston was brought into the game against the Titans and was terrible, but the Giants held on to win, 12–7. He was hardly better a week later, but again the Giants eked out a win. After the victory over the Cardinals, he’s now 2–0 in games he’s started, and the Giants, at 3–1, sit atop their division.
After Dart’s injury, the team traded a fifth-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings for another quarterback, J. J. McCarthy, also a former first-rounder with a national-championship pedigree. McCarthy bombed out of Minnesota, and Winston remains the Giants starter—for now. But at some point the team will probably reach for the future. Winston is thirty-two now. McCarthy, like Dart, is twenty-three. In the meantime, are we supposed to enjoy the Winston experience? Survive it? Decry it? It has come to feel like self-parody.
