The quarterback battle in New Orleans appears to be at an end, and the winner will be Jameis Winston.
The 27-year-old had been named the Saints' starting quarterback on Friday morning, according to a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The news is really just the finalization of what appeared to be settled after Winston's near-perfect performance in Monday's preseason victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, in which he completed 9-of-10 passes, including a pair long touchdowns to Marquez Callaway.
He'd been trading snaps with veteran Taysom Hill throughout camp, and the next step will be establishing the role for do-it-all player going forward. The Saints are scheduled to close out their preseason on Saturday when they host the Arizona Cardinals.
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The mood appeared to indicate that Winston had truly nailed down the job after Monday's performance after an offseason with coaches and players being careful to maintain a balance in their evaluations. Winston and Hill would switch off first-team reps each day at practice, and that's what happened in the preseason. Hill got the opening set of snaps against the Baltimore Ravens, while Winston got them against the Jaguars.
That game marked the former No. 1 overall pick's first start in a game since the 2019 season, a fact that was not lost on the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB afterward.
“I was just thankful. These opportunities don’t come too often. Like I said, a whole year of not starting a football game. ... I missed it," Winston said. "I missed going out there and leading the pack. That’s fun. That’s fun stuff.”
The ideal scenario for New Orleans was always going to be that one player stepped up and won the job, as opposed to either losing it or leaving too much gray area for a confident decision. That wasn't the case here, despite solid performances from Hill throughout camp.
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Saints coach Sean Payton said after Thursday's practice he wasn't ready to make any announcements regarding how the team would handle the quarterbacks, including the plan for its preseason finale. He added that he was planning to meet with the coaches later that night for a final decision, a meeting that appears to have landed Winston in the driver's seat.