The New Orleans Saints haven’t officially announced their starting quarterback and might not do so until Week 1 of the season is much closer. As of now, however, Jameis Winston is the favorite to land the starting job and that’s the right decision for the Saints should they go this route.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported on Saturday that Winston is “the favorite” to win the Week 1 job. This isn’t shocking because most Saints fans — and non-Saints fans too — figure Winston will be the team’s signal-caller when the Packers come to the Superdome for the Week 1 showdown.
Here are three reasons why Winston is the better choice as the starter.
Why Jameis Winston should start for Saints – More polished passer
As much as Saints fans love Taysom Hill, there’s a reason he didn’t automatically win the starting job after Drew Brees retired. He’s a great athlete and provides so much versatility for this offense (more on this a bit) but his arm isn’t as good as Winston’s.
In four starts at quarterback last year while Brees was injured, Hill threw for 834 yards and the most yards he threw for in a game was 291. The last time Winston was a starter, which was in 2019 for the Buccaneers, he threw for over 300 yards in 11 starts (though to be fair – Tampa’s defense was horrible that year, so Winston had to put up big numbers).
While Winston has had an issue with turnovers, especially in that 2019 season, there’s no debating who has the better arm between him and Hill.
Why Jameis Winston should start for Saints – Hill’s one of the best weapons
Hill starting at quarterback means that he’s no longer able to be utilized as an offensive weapon and the Saints have thrived when they’re able to plug and play Hill throughout their offense. This doesn’t seem fair to use as an argument against Hill but with how good he is in this role, it does make a huge difference when he’s taken out of that job and asked to only be the quarterback.
Winston under center means that the Saints can still have Hill come in to run the ball, catch the ball, and yes, occasionally throw the ball too. It makes their offense harder to predict and whenever defenses see Hill come in and line up, they immediately aren’t sure of what to do because of his versatility.
When the Saints lost to the Vikings in the Wild Card round in the 2019 season, Hill was the only positive takeaway from that loss. Without him, New Orleans probably gets blown out, and that’s a prime example of why Hill is so valuable to not just the offense, but to the entire team.
Taysom Hill is at his best when the Saints can use him in a variety of different ways. As a result, this is another argument for why Winston should be the starting quarterback, as unfair as that may be for Hill.
Why Jameis Winston should start for Saints – More experienced quarterback
The easiest reason is that Winston has more experience as a starting quarterback in the NFL than Hill does. Prior to the 2020 season when Brees got injured, Hill had never started at quarterback in a professional game, which is why fans were skeptical when Sean Payton had him start those four games.
Winston is a former No. 1 overall pick and has balled out in many seasons for the Buccaneers. His numbers are always lopsided when it comes to the interceptions, but he can clearly sling the football and put up points. That’s never been a huge issue for Winston, it’s been the turnovers that have ailed him, which hopefully, Payton can help with.
The Saints are still a very good football team even without Brees and their offense still grades out as one of the top 10 units in the league. Winston threw for over 5,100 yards and 33 touchdowns the last time we saw him in a starting role and that’s why he should start for the Saints.
If he can get on the same page as Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, Tre’Quan Smith, and Adam Trautman, the New Orleans Saints offense can be one of the most explosive units in the entire league.