If anyone has the elixir to counter the flourishing connection between Cleveland teammates Jameis Winston and Jerry Jeudy, it should be Sean Payton, whose Denver Broncos host the Browns on Monday Night Football.
“I’ve coached both of them,” said Payton, who spent three years with Winston in New Orleans and a year with Jeudy in Denver before granting his trade request last March.
“Jameis’s personality is infectious,” Payton said. “He’ll tell somebody, ‘Hey, go get open, and I’m going to find you.’ So that’s what a receiver wants. Those guys have had a good connection. You see it just in the limited games that Jameis has played.”
As for Jeudy, “from a talent standpoint, he has great hips, great transition, and he has great football IQ.”
Winston and Jeudy have connected two dozen times for 379 yards and a touchdown over the past four weeks, which included wins over playoff contenders Baltimore and Pittsburgh, giving the Browns (3-8) a glimmer of hope they can salvage their season.
To do that, they’d almost certainly have to get a win in Denver, which has its own blossoming duo in rookie quarterback Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton, who has 36 catches for 467 yards and three touchdowns over the past five weeks.
Winston took over when QB Deshaun Watson sustained a season-ending torn Achilles tendon in mid-October and in his first start in two years threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns in a win over the Ravens.
That performance had fans wondering why the team stuck with Watson for so long, but it sure didn’t raise Payton’s eyebrows.
Winston started the 2021 season for the injury-ravaged Saints and had them off to a 5-2 start when he tore an ACL against Tampa Bay, ending his season.
“I enjoyed” coaching him, Payton said. “He’s big. He’s tremendous in the locker room. He’s got this infectious personality, a smile on his face every day he’s at work. You hear him before you see him, that type of guy.
“I really enjoyed coaching him and having a chance to work with him. He’s the ultimate pro. He has natural leadership abilities, and you feel that with him,” he added.
Not surprisingly, Payton was less of a fan when they were division rivals on opposite sidelines.
“You have to remember now there were years when he was in Tampa playing against us,” Payton said, chuckling. “I hated him because that was one of the opposing teams’ quarterbacks, but we always had some good battles.
“When he came to our program, he was a sponge as a backup. Again, he tore his ACL and he was having a really good season. It will be good to shake his hand and see him after the game.”
He also would like to shake Jeudy’s hand. Although Jeudy was unhappy with his opportunities and his role in Denver, Payton was a big fan of his during their sole season together and resisted the temptation to trade him at the deadline last year before relenting and sending him to the Browns for a pair of 2024 NFL Draft picks.
After working with veterans Winston, Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater in New Orleans and with Russell Wilson his first year in Denver, Payton went the rookie route in the draft and grabbed Nix at No. 12.
The sixth quarterback selected in this year’s draft has been the best over the past two months, piling up honors such as the NFL’s Rookie of the Month in October and the past three NFL Rookie of the Week awards.
He has thrown for at least 200 yards and two touchdowns without an interception in his past three games, which is tied for the longest streak by a rookie since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The others to do it were C.J. Stroud, Gardner Minshew and Dak Prescott.
Not that Nix is paying much mind.
“Not really,” he said. “All I can focus on is the next game, the next opponent, what I can do to win, what I can do to help the team win and right now it’s just executing. There’s always going to be the off-the-field things. It doesn’t matter if you don’t play well. All I’m concerned about right now is the next opponent and that’s Cleveland.”
Nix was listed on the injury report with a strained back muscle that’s bothered him since last week. But he gave a short answer when asked about it Friday: “Good to go. Ready to roll.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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