"I know what I'm worth. And I know day in and day out, without publicly coming in and saying it, that historically I'm one of the best quarterbacks to play the game."
Those were some of the comments made by Saints backup Jameis Winston during a phone interview with Bleacher Report.
This is coming from a guy who's compiled a 28-42 record, set the NFL record for interceptions in a season as well as Pick-6s, and could not make it to a second contract with the team that drafted him first overall back in 2015. Of course, Winston does have some gaudy passing numbers but a lot of that comes from him putting his team behind to start the game.
Since leaving the Bucs, Winston has had LASIK eye surgery and went vegan, dropping 17 pounds in the process. Jameis knows that this is the time for him to turn his career around.
"It's a love of the game, bro. It's bigger than me," he says. "Do I feel like I've earned my stripes? I do. Do I feel like I'm better than a lot of starting quarterbacks in this league? I do. But God has a plan that I haven't even thought of yet. I have to respect this game first. Respect is earned.
"So if a team believes I'm not good enough to be their starting quarterback, OK, let me earn my way back up. I've done it my whole life. It's not like it's just starting to happen."
Check out the full Jameis Winston interview with Bleacher Report here.