It’s a revenge game in New Orleans. The Buccaneers drafted Jameis Winston No. 1 overall back in 2015, and kicked him to the curb after he couldn’t get things going. Now he gets to start against them for the first time.
This doesn’t happen often. In the Super Bowl era, it’s happened only 31 times. But it’s fun when it does. We had a doubling special matchup in the genre last week, when Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford went toe to toe.
Management has tended to come out on top in these kind of games. That is, rarely do we tend to see the player come back and torch the team that picked him. The players are only 14-19 in these games. That includes the Colts beating Peyton Manning in the only playoff game of this type.
| NO. 1 OVERALL PICKS STARTING AGAINST TEAMS THAT SELECTED THEM | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Opp | Result | Com | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
| 1983 | John Elway, Den. | at Balt. | W 17-10 | 9 | 21 | 106 | 0 | 0 |
| 1983 | John Elway, Den. | Balt. | W 21-19 | 23 | 44 | 345 | 3 | 0 |
| 1985 | John Elway, Den. | at Ind. | W 15-10 | 17 | 36 | 239 | 0 | 1 |
| 1986 | Steve Bartkowski, LAR | at Atl. | L 14-26 | 14 | 29 | 196 | 1 | 1 |
| 1988 | John Elway, Den. | at Ind. | L 23-55 | 15 | 27 | 158 | 1 | 0 |
| 1989 | John Elway, Den. | Ind. | W 14-3 | 13 | 25 | 150 | 0 | 1 |
| 1990 | John Elway, Den. | at Ind. | W 27-17 | 21 | 30 | 317 | 2 | 0 |
| 1993 | John Elway, Den. | Ind. | W 35-13 | 20 | 30 | 230 | 2 | 0 |
| 1995 | Vinny Testaverde, Clev. | T.B. | W 22-6 | 17 | 27 | 256 | 2 | 0 |
| 2000 | Vinny Testaverde, NYJ | at T.B. | W 21-17 | 22 | 42 | 181 | 1 | 3 |
| 2002 | Drew Bledsoe, Buff. | N.E. | L 7-38 | 28 | 45 | 302 | 1 | 1 |
| 2002 | Drew Bledsoe, Buff. | at N.E. | L 17-27 | 32 | 51 | 328 | 2 | 4 |
| 2003 | Drew Bledsoe, Buff. | N.E. | W 31-0 | 17 | 28 | 230 | 1 | 1 |
| 2003 | Drew Bledsoe, Buff. | at N.E. | L 0-31 | 12 | 29 | 83 | 0 | 1 |
| 2004 | Drew Bledsoe, Buff. | N.E. | L 17-31 | 18 | 30 | 247 | 1 | 1 |
| 2004 | Drew Bledsoe, Buff. | at N.E. | L 6-29 | 8 | 19 | 76 | 0 | 3 |
| 2005 | Eli Manning, NYG | at S.D. | L 23-45 | 24 | 41 | 352 | 2 | 0 |
| 2005 | Vinny Testaverde, NYJ | T.B. | W 14-12 | 13 | 19 | 163 | 0 | 1 |
| 2009 | Eli Manning, NYG | S.D. | L 20-21 | 25 | 33 | 215 | 2 | 0 |
| 2011 | Michael Vick, Phi. | at Atl. | L 31-35 | 19 | 28 | 242 | 2 | 1 |
| 2012 | Michael Vick, Phi. | Atl. | L 17-30 | 21 | 35 | 191 | 1 | 0 |
| 2012 | Carson Palmer, Oak. | at Cin. | L 10-34 | 19 | 34 | 146 | 1 | 1 |
| 2013 | Peyton Manning, Den. | at Ind. | L 33-39 | 29 | 49 | 386 | 3 | 1 |
| 2013 | Eli Manning, NYG | at S.D. | L 14-37 | 20 | 32 | 259 | 1 | 2 |
| 2014 | Peyton Manning, Den. | Ind. | W 31-24 | 22 | 36 | 269 | 3 | 0 |
| 2014 | Alex Smith, K.C. | at S.F. | L 17-22 | 16 | 30 | 158 | 1 | 1 |
| 2014 | Peyton Manning, Den. | Ind. (PS) | L 13-24 | 26 | 46 | 211 | 1 | 0 |
| 2015 | Peyton Manning, Den. | at Ind. | L 24-27 | 21 | 36 | 281 | 2 | 2 |
| 2015 | Carson Palmer, Ariz. | Cin. | W 34-31 | 20 | 31 | 317 | 4 | 2 |
| 2018 | Sam Bradford, Ariz. | at LAR | L 0-34 | 17 | 27 | 90 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | Alex Smith, Was. | at S.F. | W 23-15 | 8 | 19 | 57 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | Matthew Stafford, LAR | Det. | W 28-19 | 28 | 41 | 334 | 3 | 0 |
| 2021 | Jared Goff, Det. | at LAR | L 19-28 | 22 | 36 | 268 | 1 | 2 |
| 2021 | Jameis Winston, N.O. | T.B. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan