The quarterback competition is underway at Saints training camp and Jameis Winston is enjoying his role in it.
Winston told reporters at a Saturday press conference that the 2020 season was “an amazing year for me in terms of just growth of learning football overall” because of the chance to watch Saints head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees work together. Winston also noted what he gained from watching other NFC South teams along with a big difference from last year.
That difference is the amount of football he gets to play this time around and the excitement he feels from taking snaps rather than just observing others take their turn in the fray.
“Yeah, you know, continuity is always a great thing for any position and being able to experience Sean’s and Drew’s relationship gave me a good grasp of the system,” Winston said. “But obviously, reps is what’s important. This year, you know, I probably got more reps in three days than got all last year. So it’s an incredible feeling to be able to have an opportunity to go out and execute because I’m more of a, you know, a visual learner. I like to apply what we do and apply to certain concepts and I will learn better that way. So it’s been fun and I think I’m getting a good grasp of it. But obviously, my objective is to get better every single day and I know what the great head coach [can help with], his resume speaks for itself, and we got great guys in that quarterback room and we’re helping each other and we [are] building.”
Taysom Hill is also seeing more quarterback reps than he’s taken in the past and the start of preseason action will be a big step toward seeing which of them will take the lion’s share of snaps come September.