It's too early for answers regarding the Saints' plans at quarterback for the coming season, Sean Payton said, but the next steps for Taysom Hill are becoming clear.
It's expected that the QB will undergo surgery to repair the Lisfranc issue suffered in the Week 18 loss, a simple decision with the Saints' season ending with a Rams loss to the 49ers that kept New Orleans out of the playoffs.
It's an injury Hill has suffered before in the opposite foot during his days at BYU, and it came as he planted on a run midway through the second quarter.
An initial surgery will be done to repair the issue, affecting Hill's left foot. Once it's healed a secondary surgery will be done to remove whatever hardware is inserted during the initial procedure. Payton wouldn't give a recovery timetable, but indicated there should be no impact on a return to start the 2022 season.
“It’s not going to impact his offseason and I wouldn’t go through timetables right now,” Payton said.
Hill is under contract for next season, and he'll be expected to have a role regardless of how things shape up in the quarterback room around him. But Payton wasn't ready to commit to any specific plan regarding Jameis Winston, who was in attendance in Week 18 for the first time since his season-ending injury in Week 8. Winston was playing on a 1-year deal, and would need to work out a new contract to remain in New Orleans. He faced off in an offseason QB battle with Hill, which he won and started the first five games, with the Saints landing at 5-2 by the time he went down with the injury.
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Backup Trevor Siemian won that game in relief and started the next four games, all losses. Hill took over in Week 14, a loss to the Cowboys. The Saints won his next four starts, with a loss to the Dolphins sprinkled in with Hill and many others on the COVID list, prompting the first NFL start for rookie Ian Book.
With the whiplash finish to the season, the Saints now embark on their typical offseason schedule, with the main difference being that it's unusual to have won your final game before doing that.
"I said this last night to my wife. I said: ‘God, for a second there it feels like we lost,' " the coach said. "And I know why it feels that way, but that’s the difference relative to the last 24-48 hours.”
That means players doing exit interviews and physicals, scheduling any surgeries for simply or more intensive procedures to get ready for next season, and so on. But the evaluation at quarterback and elsewhere is something that will come with time. Once those evaluations are done, the plans at QB and elsewhere on the roster will come into focus, he said.
“I think it’s way too early to even answer that. Man, a lot of guys got an opportunity to play, not just at quarterback," Payton said. "Again, we’ve got a whole month ahead of us here where we’re going to be sitting down going through each position, and we just finished playing yesterday."
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