Was This Surgery All Jameis Winston Needed?

He can't read the scoreboard, but he can see guys in front of him, so he's fine

That's what Bruce Arians said about Jameis Winston at the end of the Bucs' 2019-2020 season.

Winston struggled with blurry vision throughout his career, stretching back to his Florida State days.

He's earned the reputation of "turnover machine," throwing one pick after another.

In his first season with Florida State he threw 10 interceptions, and 18 in his last.

In his final season with the Bucs, Winston threw a league high 30 interceptions, tied for 7th most in an NFL season. He's in some elite company with Brett Favre's 29 picks in 2005.

He also became the first QB in NFL history to throw 30 touchdowns and 30 picks in the same season.

But in 2020, Winston started fresh. A fresh Saints team, a fresh backup QB position behind a retiring Drew Brees, and a fresh set of eyes after undergoing LASIK treatment.

The treatment corrected an astigmatism, in addition to the curvature of his lens, and nearsightedness.

Yes, he was playing with all that.

No blurriness and I think that's huge. Depth perception has increased tremendously and those are big things. I didn't have bad eyes, I just had astigmatism.

I can read license plates, I can read street signs.

While Winston took his new eyes out for a spin on the roads, he never used them on the football field.

That changed yesterday, when he made history.

In a 38-3 week 1 beatdown of the Green Bay Packers, Winston went 14-of-20, threw for 148 yards and 5 touchdowns, with no interceptions.

The history? That is the lowest total yardage ever for a quarterback throwing 5 touchdown passes in a single game.

And the majority of those 148 yards came from his final 55-yard touchdown pass to cap off the day.

Playful memes about Winston's LASIK surgery being the source of his success emerged online

In addition to the LASIK, Winston and head coach Sean Payton have been working together for 18 months to hone his game and develop his talent. The Saints' defence also put up a dominating performance, holding the Packers to just 3 points while picking off Aaron Rodgers twice. After the win Winston said it was the resiliency of the New Orleans people after hurricane Ida that inspired the team to go out and win.