Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill are in the throes of a full-blown quarterback competition for the New Orleans Saints, but it's been equally competitive to gauge who's been more supportive.
Speaking from minicamp, both quarterbacks gushed about each others' work ethic and leadership skills, despite the underlying competition for who will being the 2021 season as Drew Brees' successor.
“We have the same mentality," Winston said on Tuesday. "Our main focus is to win and to be our best selves. That’s what I respect about Taysom, because he’s a man that can do so many great things for this team and he has done so many great things for this organization since he’s been here. And so just trying to find ways to serve him and work with him is going to make both of us better in terms of leading our teammates and working with them as well.”
With an adjusted offseason, a lot of that competition has taken place in a classroom setting and through player-organized throwing sessions. Winston named six players he'd already worked out with, including wide receivers Tre'Quan Smith, and Marquez Callaway, and tight ends Adam Trautman and Nick Vannett.
Those workouts haven't gone unnoticed by Saints coach Sean Payton, who lauded both players' for "doing a great job leading" as the team inches closer to the first quarterback competition at a New Orleans training camp in well over a decade.
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“Both of these guys have been here now so I think the key is getting as much of the work and evaluation reps that you can for both of them," Payton said. "That’ll be a challenge, but we’ll find a way to do it.”
It's WInston that undoubtedly carries the larger quarterback profile, a former No. 1 overall pick who spent four seasons as the starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before joining the Saints as a backup for the 2020 season. But it was Hill who got a four-game run as the starter with Brees missing time due to rib and lung injuries.
Regardless, Winston is OK with a competition for the job. That's how he's viewed every season since the beginning of his career, he says.
“I believe every year I’m in a competition. Like, this is the NFL. This is a job. I don’t go into any year with expectations. Like, last year I felt like I was competing with Drew Brees in training camp," Winston said. "Realistically I probably knew that I wasn’t going to be the starting quarterback for the Saints that year. But every year since I’ve been playing little league football I’ve been in competition. That’s the sport. That’s how we get better. If you are playing the sport believing ‘hey, I’ve got this position locked down’ it’s very tough for you to get better."
Hill said Winston was as supportive as anyone during that four-game run in 2020, which started with three consecutive victories before a difficult loss on the road to the Philadelphia Eagles. Through all that, he and Winston have become good friends, he says.
"I think there’s obviously a lot of conversation here about this competition and everything else. But I’m super supportive to him and I’ve felt nothing but support from his as well, and that goes back to last year as well when I was playing," Hill said.
"Jameis was super supportive. He and I had a lot of conversations through that process, and he was great through that whole thing. So, that has not changed. And he’s become a really good friend."
Hill said he's adjusted his offseason training regimen slightly to account for a potential shift to full-time quarterbacking, focusing on footwork and in-game decision-making.
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