With Drew Brees’ retirement, the Saints will have a new starting quarterback for the first time since 2006.
At this point, the club has both Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill to compete for QB1. Head coach Sean Payton said recently that quarterback isn’t a “must” position for the Saints to draft this week. General Manager Mickey Loomis agreed with the sentiment during his pre-draft press conference on Wednesday.
“No. 1, I love our quarterback room,” Loomis said. “We had a great experience with [Jameis]. We all are excited about Taysom and his opportunity. In terms of this year, this is a good group of quarterbacks and I think it’s going to be evident tomorrow night by the number of guys that are taken. And then there are some guys down the line, I think, that have an opportunity to get into being good players. So we’ll just see how it shakes out. But the answer to your question is that we do like our quarterback room.”
Winston was the backup quarterback throughout 2020, throwing for only 75 yards in the regular season. He also hit a 56-yard touchdown pass on a trick play during the postseason.
Hill started four games at QB when Brees was out with injured ribs, completing 72 percent of his bases for 834 yards with four TDs and two interceptions in those contests. Additionally, he rushed for 209 yards and four touchdowns as a starter.