METAIRIE, La. – Some days have been better than others for Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston as they compete for the New Orleans Saints starting quarterback job.
Wednesday, for both passers, was one of the days that probably won’t make the training camp highlight video. Both quarterbacks turned the ball over and neither put together a particularly impressive sequence. Here is their day through our eyes.
The numbers
Taysom Hill: 6 completions in 10 attempts with one interception in full team drills / 101 for 156 with two touchdowns and five interceptions in camp as a whole
Jameis Winston: 7 completions in 13 attempts with one interception in full team drills / 123 for 186 with six touchdown and four interceptions in camp as a whole
Behind the numbers
Quick note on these numbers: The Saints escorted media out of the indoor facility before the Saints went through one final two-minute drill at the end of practice, so these numbers do not fully reflect what happened Wednesday.
This was an uninspiring day for both quarterbacks in terms of throwing the football. They both hovered near 50% completion percentage, neither made a truly memorable throw, and both sputtered in red zone and two-minute situations.
Hill worked with the first team offense Wednesday. His best moments came when he was able to use his athleticism to help him make plays, something that is not always able to show on a practice field because he is wearing a red non-contact uniform, and therefore we can never know if he’d break a tackle or elude a sack.
First, he rolled right on a bootleg and found Marquez Callaway for a gain of 10-15 yards. That was an encouraging sign, because for all Hill’s athleticism, he often struggled to throw on the move last season. It appears to be something he worked on this offseason.
Next, Hill took advantage of a vacated area of the field to scramble for a gain of about 20 yards during a two-minute drill. While Winston has had a few nice scrambles this camp, this is clearly an element of the game that favors Hill.
But directly following the scramble, Hill threw a ball up to Marquez Callaway on the sideline that Marcus Williams intercepted. The situation dictated an aggressive approach by the offense, so the decision was not entirely faulty, and Williams made a great play on the ball.
The issue was Hill’s ball placement. Callaway had his man beat, but appeared to have trouble tracking the ball as it was thrown over his inside shoulder instead of the outside. He could not lay a finger on it, allowing Williams an unimpeded path to the ball.
Given an opportunity to punch the ball into the end zone in a red zone drill and in a two-minute drill, Hill could not get it done. But neither could Winston.
Winston also threw an interception Wednesday, during the red zone period, and his was much harder to explain away. Targeting Ty Montgomery in the middle of the field, Winston hung his pass up in the air, allowing Brian Poole to swoop in and make an easy pick.
He connected on a few downfield throws, including a beauty to Lil’Jordan Humphrey to start the two-minute drill – a perfect throw right over Humphrey’s shoulder that put the second-team offense in prime position.
But Winston generally struggled to find a rhythm. He completed three of his eight attempts in red zone and two-minute situations (one of the incompletions was a throwaway) and he missed a potential scoring play when he overthrew Humphrey in the two-minute drill (immediately after connecting with him on the previous play)
Where do things stand?
The Saints have been in training camp for three weeks now, and many would have expected by now to have a general idea of who the Saints starting quarterback was going to be in Week 1 – or at least who was leading the pack.
But the reality is neither Hill nor Winston have separated themselves from the other. It’s tough to tell whether that reflects well on Hill, who clearly came into training camp ready to compete for the starting job, or poorly on Winston, who despite being the overwhelming favorite for the job has not put Hill away.
At this point, it still feels like Winston is in line to be the Saints’ Week 1 starter at quarterback, but that feels less sure as the days pass.
