The New Orleans Saints signed both Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston this offseason in a bid to find the successor to the Drew Brees era in New Orleans. Winston spoke about his experience after the first few days of training camp.
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The Saints are still undecided on their starting QB for 2021, and the battle between Jamies Winston and Taysom Hill is as open as ever.
Taysom Hill restructured his contract to include 4 automatically voiding years at $140M. This may sound like a big deal, but in reality, Taysom didn’t get any new money and this move was purely for the Saints to come under the salary cap.
Jameis on the other hand signed a new 1 year $12M contract. Neither of these contracts are great for the players. What’s great, however, is the opportunity to become Drew Brees’ heir and play for one of the best rosters in the league, under one of the leagues greatest offensive minds in HC Sean Payton.
Taysom Hill or Jameis Winston!?! @Saints pic.twitter.com/dvKXNXM6so
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) March 15, 2021
Winston is heading into his 2nd season with the Saints. The former No. 1 overall pick had a very honest admission on his time with the Saints so far.
Jameis Winston is happy to be getting a lot more reps than last year.
Winston told reporters at a Saturday press conference that the 2020 season was “an amazing year for me in terms of just growth of learning football overall” because of the chance to watch Saints head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees work together.
“Yeah, you know, continuity is always a great thing for any position and being able to experience Sean’s and Drew’s relationship gave me a good grasp of the system,” Winston said.
“But obviously, reps is what’s important. This year, you know, I probably got more reps in three days than got all last year. So it’s an incredible feeling to be able to have an opportunity to go out and execute because I’m more of a, you know, a visual learner.”
“I like to apply what we do and apply to certain concepts and I will learn better that way. So it’s been fun and I think I’m getting a good grasp of it. But obviously, my objective is to get better every single day and I know what the great head coach [can help with], his resume speaks for itself, and we got great guys in that quarterback room and we’re helping each other and we [are] building.”
Jameis Winston is in his second year with the Saints … but he’s meeting with the media for the first time. Here’s what he has to say about the QB situation. #SaintsCamp pic.twitter.com/Mbv0NKTwSw
— Jeff Nowak (@Jeff_Nowak) July 31, 2021
It’s obvious that Winston got a lot more reps heading into this year’s training camp. The 27-year-old got Lasik surgery over the summer and seems to be working extra hard to get into super shape for the 2021 season. So it should be interesting to see if he can top Taysom Hill for the starting spot come Week 1.