Jameis Winston may not be in New Orleans anymore, but New Orleans is still in him.

And truth be told, it always will be.

Memories of playing in the Superdome, attending second-line parades or just mingling with the locals on a random day in some New Orleans neighborhood tend to stick with a person.  

So those four years Winston spent as quarterback for the Saints have shaped the 12-year veteran, as he reminded the New York media Wednesday.

Winston, now in his second season with the New York Giants (3-1-1), will play his former team Sunday when the reeling Saints (1-4) make the trip to MetLife Stadium.

For Winston, who often talks about his appreciation for getting to play the game he has loved since he was a kid growing up in Alabama, the opportunity to face his former team means even more.

“I’m grateful for it,” Winston said. “I love that organization. My heart and soul is with Who Dat.”

So yeah, Winston still loves the Saints. And the Saints players who shared a locker room with him a few years ago still love him.

“He is the best,” said Saints center Erik McCoy. “Always in a good mood. Always going to see the bright side of things. Funny. And honestly, just a good guy to be around. I love the guy. I think anybody who has played with him would say that.”

When the NFL schedule was announced in May, this game was expected to be a matchup between two of the first three quarterbacks selected in the 2025 draft: the Giants’ Jaxson Dart and the Saints’ Tyler Shough. But Dart injured his knee in Week 2, opening the door for Winston. The Giants haven’t lost since Winston took over. They are 2-0-1 after last week’s tie against the Washington Commanders. Winston has thrown for 805 yards, with six touchdowns and three interceptions. The Saints respect what he’s done.

“Teammates always respect Jameis,” said Saints defensive end Cam Jordan. “On the outside looking in, you think he’s light and kind-hearted. And he is kind-hearted. But he’s as focused as they come. In his mind, he practices like he’s the No.1 (quarterback) that he was and that he now is. I think it goes a long way with having a professional at quarterback like Jameis. Whatever you want to put on him, winnability, whatever it is. He gets the job done.”

In a perfect world, Winston would have liked to have been able to get the job done in New Orleans. The Saints were the team that gave Winston a chance after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers replaced him with Tom Brady. Winston started just 10 games in New Orleans. He sat behind Drew Brees in 2020. The next year he beat out Taysom Hill for the starting job in a training camp battle that divided the fan base. In his very first start, he threw five touchdowns to beat Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in a game moved to Jacksonville because of Hurricane Ida.

“That win was for the city,” Winston said that day.

Winston would have loved to get more wins for the city that embraced him. He went 6-4 as the Saints’ starter. His first season as a starter ended a month after that Packers game when he suffered a season-ending knee injury on Halloween against the Bucs, the team that drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick six years earlier. The Saints won that game to improve to 5-2. They have gone 32-51 since.

Winston started the first three games of the 2022 season, but never got his job back after a back and foot injury. He finished that year as Andy Dalton’s backup and spent the 2023 season as Derek Carr’s backup. That was Winston’s last season in New Orleans. His final play in a Saints uniform came in the regular-season finale against the Atlanta Falcons. He was supposed to take the snap from McCoy and take a knee in the waning seconds of the lopsided win. Instead, he handed the ball off to running back Jamaal Williams, who hadn’t scored a touchdown all year. That was Winston, choosing to shun conventional wisdom to do for something for one of his teammates.

Winston has never been afraid of taking chances. There are times when he will throw a pass that makes you say “Wow, how did he do that?” And there are other times he may throw an interception that makes you say, “Dang, why did he do that?”

Some have labeled his willingness to take risks and the highs and lows that come with it the Jameis Winston Experience.

“Risk taker?” Jordan asked rhetorically. “He’s been a ball mover. You know he’s going for points for sure. Sometimes you see it in every throw and it can be taken advantage of. At the same time, he can make all the throws, so you have to beware of where he’s at and what he can do.”

Winston has shown he’s willing to try anything. When he’s not playing football, he’s doing commercials or one of his side gigs, like being a correspondent for the Super Bowl or the World Cup.

He signed with the Cleveland Browns after he left the Saints and stayed there for one season. He faced the Saints that year, completing 30 of 46 passes for 395 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-14 Saints win. Now he’s on his fourth NFL team.

“I’m grateful to be a New York Football Giant,” Winston said. “And the New York Football Giants have given me the privilege to be their starting quarterback, and I’m going to honor that and do my very best at that.”

And more times than not, the guys on Winston’s second NFL team will be rooting for him.

“Every other week, I am wishing him the best,” McCoy said. “Just not this one.”