Just when we thought things would calm down with the Saints after the NFL draft ended they hit with a couple of major quarterback moves on Sunday.
Jameis Winston, I think, won’t become official until after Monday afternoon. There’s a compensatory pick formula with extra picks that you get in the draft. The Saints look like they’ll pick up a couple of extra picks, but when you sign free agents that counts against that. Anybody you sign Monday afternoon doesn’t count against that formula so my guess is the Saints wait until Monday afternoon or Monday night or even Tuesday to make that official.
Back to Taysom Hill, I love the deal for both Hill and the Saints. It’s two years and Taysom Hill more than doubles the money he would have gotten with the one-year tender.
Hill has been one of the most dynamic players on the Saints roster for the past few years. I don’t have to tell you that if you’ve seen the Saints play and he’s getting paid and he’s earned it. I like to see players who have earned it get the money, so good for him.
It’s also good for the Saints. Because it’s only a two-year deal, there’s a ‘prove it to me’ component to this deal. If he’s going to be your quarterback of the future, he’s going to have to prove it before he gets a long-term deal, so it’s good for both parties.
Now, going back to Jameis Winston, I know he is wild and reckless and makes too many mistakes as a quarterback, but I’ll say this, he is enormously talented. He has an enormous upside.
The one thing I keep coming back to is, all season long, when you talk to Taysom Hill and Teddy Bridgewater, about playing quarterback, I remember in Seattle after Drew Brees went down, and we knew we weren’t going to have him for awhile and what they would say – over and over – both guys – is how much they learned about playing quarterback by watching Drew Brees.
They did it by watching his work ethic, his attention to detail, how he came into a room. How he planned his week and how he executed his week. And, maybe, that is exactly what Jameis Winston needs to turn his career around. He has always been ‘the guy.’
Maybe watching ‘the guy’ – a future Hall of Famer – work, is exactly what Jameis Winston needs – an exercise in study skills for him.
The Saints have literally nothing to lose.
He is an enormously talented backup quarterback. If you think that you could lose Drew Brees for two or three or four games in the 2020 season, what backup quarterback gives you the best chance to win games?
I don’t think there’s a backup quarterback in the NFL more talented than Jameis Winston. I’m not comparing him to starting quarterbacks, because he’s not a starting quarterback anymore. Compare him to the backups, and I think Jameis Winston is the guy I might take first of all the NFL backups.
I applaud both moves that look like they happened on Sunday.