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Jameis Winston and Saints grind out victory over falling Seahawks | NFL

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Brian Johnson kicked a 33-yard field goal with 1:56 remaining in his NFL debut, and the New Orleans Saints capitalized on a series of Seattle mistakes for a 13-10 win over the Seahawks on Monday night.

Alvin Kamara carried the load for New Orleans and Jameis Winston made a handful of plays when needed, but the Saints escaped Seattle thanks largely to a series of blunders by the home team, who were led by backup quarterback Geno Smith.

Two of the Seahawks’ biggest mistakes came on New Orleans’ deciding drive when Seattle were flagged for roughing the passer and jumping offside on a long field-goal attempt. Both penalties gave New Orleans first downs, and Johnson’s field goal coming out of the two-minute warning put the Saints ahead.

Johnson, a rookie from Virginia Tech, made an extra point and both field-goal tries, connecting from 21 yards in the first half.

Smith hit DK Metcalf for an 84-yard touchdown in the first quarter but went nowhere when the Seahawks had a final chance to tie or win. Smith was sacked on consecutive plays by Malcolm Jenkins and Demario Davis. On fourth-and-28, Smith was pressured again and his throw to Metcalf fell incomplete. Smith went 12 of 22 for 167 yards and was sacked five times as Davis, Cameron Jordan and others made his night uncomfortable.

The Seahawks lost their third straight game for the first time since 2011 and fell to 0-3 at home.

Kamara finished with 10 catches for 128 yards and a 13-yard TD reception late in the first half. It was his fifth career regular-season game with double-digit receptions. He rushed for 51 yards.

Winston was 19 of 35 for 222 yards and added 43 yards rushing. He also made enough plays thanks to Seattle penalties to get the Saints in range for the winning field goal.

Seattle appeared to get a stop, but Marquise Blair was called for roughing the passer on a third-down sack after hitting Winston with the crown of his helmet. Kamara then sprinted past a blitz for 12 yards on third-and-10 and the Saints were in field-goal range.

Al Woods jumped offside as Johnson lined up for a 43-yard attempt, allowing New Orleans to burn another 90 seconds off the clock before Johnson made the shorter try.
Seattle’s Jason Myers missed a pair of field goal attempts from 44 and 53 yards the second into the open end of the stadium after Smith took another costly sack. Myers made a 50-yarder.

Kamara had 21 touches on New Orleans’ 39 offensive plays in the first half. He was mostly ineffective on the ground, but Seattle couldn’t slow him down in the pass game. He already had 108 yards receiving by halftime.

Four of his receptions came on the final drive of the half when his 31-yard catch-and-run out of the backfield set up his 13-yard TD catch and a 10-7 halftime lead.

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New Orleans Saints name Jameis Winston starting quarterback for Week 1, sources say

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METAIRIE, La. — Jameis Winston has officially secured his second chance.

Winston, 27, will be the New Orleans Saints’ starting quarterback in Week 1 when they host the Green Bay Packers, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Friday.

It will be Winston’s first start since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to move on from him following the 2019 season. And it will be a chance for the former Heisman Trophy winner and 2015 No. 1 overall draft choice to revive his career after he was derailed by turnovers in Tampa.

Meanwhile, the Saints will be trying to prove they can remain a playoff contender in the wake of Drew Brees’ retirement. This will be the first time in 16 years that someone other than Brees has entered the season as New Orleans’ starting QB.

“I would love to carry that torch from him,” Winston said earlier this year when he got emotional while talking about how much it meant to him to spend last season as Brees’ backup. “I would love to be able to provide the excitement and joy and resilience that he provided for this city.”

Winston earned this opportunity by outperforming fellow Saints backup Taysom Hill in the preseason. The two of them split first-team reps equally throughout training camp and the first two exhibition games. But Winston made the decision easier with a dynamic performance in Monday night’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars — completing 9 of 10 passes for 123 yards and two deep touchdowns to receiver Marquez Callaway.

Hill, 31, went all-in this offseason to become a full-time starting quarterback after he went 3-1 as a starter last year while filling in for an injured Brees. Hill slimmed down and tailored his offseason workouts to the QB position specifically. But it seems likely that the Saints will now want to continue using Hill’s versatility as a read-option QB/RB/WR/TE after he has been so special in that role over the past three years.

Winston went 28-42 as a starter with the Buccaneers from 2015-2019, completing 61.3% of his passes with 19,737 yards, 121 touchdowns and 88 interceptions. He displayed some dynamic highs and lows during that tenure — especially in 2019 in his first year under coach Bruce Arians. That year, Winston led the league with 5,109 passing yards but also became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw at least 30 touchdown passes and 30 interceptions in the same season.

Turnovers have been Winston’s biggest hurdle, with a league-high total of 111 from 2015 to 2019.

But Winston has made decision-making his top priority over the past two years. He said that is the No. 1 thing he learned from Brees — focusing on the right decision on every snap rather than trying to force a big result.

So far, that approach seems to be paying dividends. Interceptions have been rare for Winston over the past four weeks in practice, though he did have one that bounced off the hands of receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey on a slightly underthrown deep ball in the preseason opener.

Winston initially signed a one-year deal with the Saints in 2020 that was worth just $1.1 million plus incentives — specifically because he wanted to learn under Payton, Brees and offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr.

He signed another one-year deal this year that was worth $5.5 million guaranteed — plus another $7 million in possible incentives that he now has a better chance of reaching.

Winston’s start in New Orleans’ second preseason game was his first start ever with the Saints since there was no preseason last year. Afterward, he acknowledged how special the opportunity was for him.

“I was just thankful. These opportunities don’t come too often. A whole year of not starting a football game,” Winston said. “That’s what I said in our team prayer, like, ‘Lord, thank you for this opportunity.’ … He’s the one that did it, the lord did it for me. And I missed it man. I missed going out there and leading the pack. That’s fun, that’s fun stuff.”

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Jameis Winston, Taysom Hill show mix of good, bad plays in New Orleans Saints’ loss

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Taysom Hill got the first start of the preseason. Jameis Winston threw the first touchdown pass. But neither of the New Orleans Saints’ quarterback contenders was able to avoid the turnovers that doomed a 17-14 loss at the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.

Each QB threw an interception as part of the Saints’ whopping total of six turnovers.

“I’m not making comparisons with the quarterbacks right now,” coach Sean Payton said after the game. “It doesn’t matter who [played better], really, with six turnovers, right?”

Unofficially, it was probably a tie or a slight win for Winston after both QBs mixed in some nice plays as well. But the competition is still too close to call as they head into Round 2, with Winston expected to get his turn to start next Monday night at Jacksonville.

Payton, Hill and Winston all acknowledged that they will actually find some good things when they review the film, including Winston’s touchdown drive before the two-minute warning and Hill’s impressive opening drive that ended with a Latavius Murray fumble inside the Ravens’ 10-yard line.

And neither quarterback was solely to blame for the interceptions.

Hill and receiver Ty Montgomery got their signals crossed on a hot-read throw when Montgomery sat in the middle of the field and Hill expected him to keep running.

Winston, meanwhile, threw a deep ball to Humphrey that appeared to be slightly underthrown but bounced out of Humphrey’s hands and into the waiting arms of a safety.

All told, Hill completed 8 of 12 passes for 81 yards with no TD drives and the interception. Winston completed 7 of 12 passes for 96 yards while leading two TD drives with one TD pass and one interception.

“At first glance, it’s hard to talk about anything other than six turnovers. But I think there are a lot of really good things that we can all learn from [and] some really good things overall,” said Hill, who said there was “just a little confusion” on the interception.

“I was expecting him to stay on the move in that look, and he thought he should settle,” Hill said. “I think those are the things it’s nice to see in a preseason game, so we can make sure that between our room and that room that we’re all on the same page.”

Winston was even more blunt when asked to describe his interception, saying, “Has to be a better ball — and it will be.”

As for his TD pass, in which he patiently looked to the right flat before turning and hitting a well-covered Humphrey in the middle of the end zone, Winston credited Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr.

“Great play call by Pete,” said Winston, who also praised the offensive line and running back Tony Jones Jr. for their work on the scoring drives. “We ran it a little farther out than I was expecting, but just great timing. LJ got open on the back end. Had pressure on us, they were in man-to-man coverage, and we got us a good one.”

Winston also made two great throws earlier on that TD drive — a 26-yarder on third-and-9 to Montgomery between two defenders, and a 33-yard strike to tight end Juwan Johnson.

Hill’s best throws came early to New Orleans’ summer breakout receiver Marquez Callaway, who caught three passes for 61 yards on the opening drive, including conversions on third-and-9 and third-and-7.

Both QBs had some nice moments when they had to avoid pressure or get deeper into their progressions. Each had one or two off-target throws. Each took one sack.

The game mirrored the first two weeks of training camp practices, when Winston also reached some higher highs with a few flash plays and standout practice sessions. But neither QB has done anything dramatic enough to truly “win” or “lose” the competition yet.

“Look, the talk of a competition is right here,” Hill said, pointing to the media assembled in the postgame news conference area, when asked if his mindset is different while battling for the starting job. “I think for me, it’s going out there and playing my best football every night. I don’t like when things don’t go well if I’m in a competition or not in a competition. At the end of the day, I’m trying to be as good as I possibly can for my teammates. So it’s all the same [as any other year].”

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Taysom Hill is frontrunner vs. Jameis Winston

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The biggest double-take contract numbers on the doorstep of NFL free agency weren’t hard to find Sunday, with the New Orleans Saints signing quarterback Taysom Hill to a gaudy — but entirely voiding — four-year, $140 million contract extension. The key words in that sentence: Entirely voiding.

In most cases of NFL contracts, that phrase translates into numbers as being “entirely meaningless.” In terms of what the extension implies, this isn’t one of those cases.

There are several important signals from the Hill extension.

Taysom Hill’s contract adjustment turned heads, but the $140 million value isn’t what it looks like on the surface. (Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports)

What is real about Taysom Hill’s $140M extension?

First and foremost, the numbers: The entire $140 million extension isn’t a real number. It’s a mechanism used to stretch out Hill’s current salary-cap hit and lessen how much he counts this year. If you’ve been paying any attention the past week in the NFL, you are familiar with teams cutting new deals with players and using voidable years to basically move their money further into the future when there is more cap space available, a maneuver that became necessary this year when the 2021 salary cap rolled back to $182.5 million due to pandemic-related revenue shortfalls. All you need to know about Hill’s deal is that the extension years void at the end of the 2021 season, which means he’s officially on a one-year contract

The math: Hill had a cap charge of $16.159 million that is now reduced to $8.41 million, saving the Saints $7.749 million on this season’s cap. That savings means that a $7.749 million cap charge that won’t count this year will be pushed into 2022 — unless Hill signs a new extension.

All of this is important for two reasons. First, Hill still counts a lot against the cap, even if it is spread out over two years, which should be an indication that the Saints still view him as their potential starting quarterback of 2021 and beyond. And second, the fact that he’ll be counting against next season’s cap whether he’s on the team or not should indicate some motivation on the part of the Saints to start working on an extension during the course of the 2021 season if he starts at quarterback and plays well.

Is Jameis Winston still a factor in New Orleans?

Hill not only appears to be in the running to take over for the retired Drew Brees next season, but his money and contract structure is already suggestive that he is the favorite for the job, especially given that the team has yet to re-sign Jameis Winston. This doesn’t mean that Winston won’t be part of a quarterback runoff for the Saints in 2021. It just makes it clear that New Orleans wants Hill to be a part of that derby and that his remaining cap charge already puts him in a “starting” tier.

As for Winston factoring into this picture, a source close to the quarterback told Yahoo Sports on Sunday night that he wants to remain in New Orleans and views the Saints and head coach Sean Payton as his ideal situation to earn a starting job, not to mention a long-term deal. Whether that happens will ultimately come down to if another team unexpectedly offers Winston a starting job in 2021, which appears highly unlikely. The likelier scenario is Winston taking a deal paying him a low base salary with heavy incentives to raise his earnings if he wins the starting job with a prolific season. The catch is that Winston could be offered that same kind of deal elsewhere, too, although he wouldn’t have the one year of familiarity that he already has in New Orleans.

Don’t expect Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson to become candidates

Boiled down, New Orleans appears to be heading right to the point where we all suspected in the event of a Brees retirement: with a quarterback competition between Hill and Winston, but with Hill being the initial frontrunner just from the 2021 salary implications. In an ideal situation, the Saints would see one of those players prove worthy of a long-term extension, which would be set into motion late in the 2021 season, with the Saints being able to use the franchise tag to lock down either Hill or Winston if such an extension can’t be reached.

Lost in all of this is the evaporation of the “fantasy” scenario that was never going to happen, which would have seen the Saints trading for either the Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson or the Houston Texans’ Deshaun Watson. Not only would the Saints have had to essentially gut their roster or dramatically hammer future cap years to make such a signing happen, the franchise also would have had to surrender considerable assets that would have included some core pieces of the current roster.

Hill’s cap-related extension kills any shot of that happening, which is one more considerable signal sent by a phantom extension that made a lot of noise but really only whispered the same quarterback scenario we’ve been expecting all along.

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Angelina Jolie sells artwork by Winston Churchill for record-setting $11.5M

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LONDON — A Moroccan landscape painted by Winston Churchill and owned by Angelina Jolie sold at auction Monday for more than $11.5 million, smashing the previous record for a work by Britain’s World War II leader.

“Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” sold at Christie’s in London for 8,285,000 pounds ($11,590,715). The pre-sale estimate was 1.5 million pounds to 2.5 million pounds, and the previous record price for a Churchill painting was just under 1.8 million pounds.

The image of the 12th-century mosque in Marrakech at sunset, with the Atlas Mountains in the background, is a piece of both political and Hollywood history.

The only painting that Britain’s wartime prime minister completed during the 1939-45 conflict, it was completed after the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, where Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt planned the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The two leaders visited Marrakech after the conference so that Churchill could show Roosevelt the city’s beauty. Churchill gave the painting to Roosevelt as a memento of the trip.

The painting was sold by Roosevelt’s son after the president’s death in 1945 and had several owners before Jolie and partner Brad Pitt bought it in 2011.

The couple separated in 2016 and have spent years enmeshed in divorce proceedings, amid speculation about the division of their extensive art collection.

They were declared divorced in 2019 after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single while other issues, including finances and child custody, remain.

The painting was sold by the Jolie Family Collection. The buyer wasn’t immediately identified.

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Winston Churchill bust and the White House

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Overheated, confusing and laden in the end with blatant racism, the case of the White House bust of Winston Churchill still persists.

An Oval Office redesign brought in new busts instead: Latino civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt.

In another era, the same decision caused outcry. American conservatives and even some British politicians declared it a major snub.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, said it was because President Barack Obama “probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claimed the decoration decision “foreshadowed everything that was to come the next six years.”

Boris Johnson, who was then mayor of London and is now prime minister, went furthest. He blamed the swap on the “part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire.”

The attacks were blatantly racist and also misleading. Obama officials were infuriated.

There are actually two identical Churchill busts, both by the British modernist sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein. One has been in the White House collection since Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Another was lent by Prime Minister Tony Blair to the George W. Bush White House when the other one was being restored.

The one from Blair sat on display in the Oval Office until Bush departed. It was returned to the British government.

Under Obama, the White House-owned version was not displayed in the Oval Office; instead, Obama kept it outside the Treaty Room in the Residence, where he walked past it when he wanted to watch basketball on the weekends and evenings. He chose to put it there so he would see it during his personal time. He had a bust of King in the office.

He addressed the situation during his final year in office.

“I love the guy,” he said during a visit to London, adding later: “There are only so many tables where you can put busts. Otherwise, it starts looking a little cluttered.”

When Trump arrived, he returned Churchill to the Oval Office, much to the (proclaimed) pleasure of the Brits. Then-Prime Minister Theresa May, who was Trump’s first foreign visitor to the Oval Office, came armed with the UK version of the bust to present to Trump. Officials said the Trump team had requested it.

“We were very pleased that you accepted it back,” May told him.

Now, the bust is gone again. But Johnson, who is now Prime Minister and is hoping to cement strong ties with the new administration, does not appear to have the same reaction.

“The Oval Office is the President’s private office, and it’s up to the President to decorate it as he wishes,” a Downing Street spokesman said on Thursday. “We’re in no doubt about the importance President Biden places on the UK-US relationship, and the Prime Minister looks forward to having that close relationship with him.”

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