Saints' Winston: Following Brees is 'tremendous' responsibility

The New Orleans Saints are set to hold their first quarterback competition in nearly 15 seasons.

With franchise quarterback Drew Brees announcing his retirement this offseason, the Saints will be looking for Taysom Hill or Jameis Winston to succeed the NFL's all-time leading passer.

A humbled Winston spoke Tuesday about the honor of following in Brees' footsteps and was nearly brought to tears discussing the future Hall of Famer's influence.

"I love football. That's all I've been my entire life," Winston told reporters, including Jeff Nowak of NOLA.com. "And someone that I look up to, that I admire, that I actually could touch, was my teammate, and I had a chance to serve him? I'm speechless."

He added: "He doesn't even know how much he means to me and my family."

Winston played sparingly during the 2020 regular season, throwing for 75 yards and no touchdowns on 11 pass attempts. He did throw a 56-yard touchdown in the team's divisional-round loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Saints re-signed him to a one-year deal for next season.

"It's a tremendous amount of responsibility following behind a guy like Drew Brees, but I embrace that," Winston said.

Winston joined the Saints last season after five campaigns with the Buccaneers. Selected first overall by Tampa in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Florida State product tallied 19,737 yards and 121 touchdowns with a 61% completion percentage with the Buccaneers.

But when Brees missed time with multiple injuries during the regular season, it was Hill who got the starting nod. And Saints head coach Sean Payton has made it clear neither signal-caller is entrenched as the team's starter going forward.

"I've told both of them, 'The two of you are going to compete for this position,'" Payton said, according to team writer John DeShazier. "And they understand it. We've already had a chance to see both of them to some degree.

"I think last year was important for us relative to Jameis - we had had Taysom in the building, but it gave us a year to evaluate (Winston) and it also gave him a year to evaluate us. And I think that was important."

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