Saints: 3 available quarterbacks better than Taysom Hill

1. Jameis Winston

By all accounts, the Saints were happy with what they saw from Winston this past season. During a Super Bowl week appearance with Pro Football Talk, Sean Payton confirmed it.

“[O]ur exposure to Jameis was fantastic,” Payton said on PFT Live. “I know he’s a free agent, but he’s someone I think we’re really excited to work with. Now, that means we’ve got work to do still. I think he feels the same way. I feel pretty good about that.”

Winston of course barely played for New Orleans, completing seven of 11 regular season pass attempts (6-for-10 after Brees was injured against the 49ers in Week 10). He is sure to get some attention on the free agent market, it’s just a matter of if those opportunities present a clear path to a starting job again.

If Winston used his “Harvard education” over one season in New Orleans to deepen his understanding of offense and gain maturity (on the field), there’s no denying his physical talent. He’s also still just 27 years old, with presumably plenty of good years left.

As is the case with anything the Saints might do this offseason, affording to keep Winston will be difficult. More than $28 million in cap space still devoted to quarterbacks (Brees and Hill) won’t be helpful either. But in a vacuum where money doesn’t matter Winston is definitely a better quarterback than Hill, and re-signing him is more likely than most other options.