Brandon Tierney: Why shouldn’t the 49ers roll the dice on Jameis Winston?

Sometimes it’s good to get outside the bubble once in a while. When the Robert Saleh news broke last week, I wanted to talk with someone outside of 49ers-land to get their perspective on what Saleh is and whether they were as excited to land him as 49ers fans were to lose him. Enter CBS Sports’ Brandon Tierney, who has worked in both the San Francisco and New York markets in his career and knows both teams well.

Tierney joined me for the latest Niners Nation Podcast on Friday after the news broke, and shared his excitement for the move, as well as what the 49ers should do at quarterback next year. During the course of the conversation, he threw out an idea that wouldn’t cost the 49ers a ton of money, but carries plenty of risk.

“Why not roll the dice on a more polished Jameis Winston after a year with Sean Payton and Drew Brees in the quarterback room? The guy’s got elite arm talent. If you coach the mistakes out of him, which, being around Payton and Brees there’s a chance that some of that has been deleted, you don’t take a chance on him? Plus, you don’t have to give up anything to get Jameis Winston.”

You can hear Brandon’s full explanation as well as the whole conversation in the player below.

Winston certainly does have elite arm talent. In 2019 he threw for 5,109 yards, which is the eighth-highest single-season total in the history of the NFL. As everyone knows by now, however, he also became the only quarterback to ever throw 30+ touchdowns and 30 picks in a single season that same year.

Still, you could argue that Winston has a bigger upside as a backup than the recently-signed Josh Johnson, couldn’t you?

Other topics covered in the episode

• Did the Jets just hire the best coach they’ve ever had?
• Does Tierney think the Jets would be interested in a trade for Jimmy G.
• What would he give up for Deshaun Watson?
• What Kyle Shanahan needs from John Lynch next year