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In the New Orleans Saints 23-21 preseason victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night, it finally happened: a quarterback seized the opportunity. The other, just as importantly, essentially squandered his. In covering this quarterback competition through training camp, we’ve all developed our respective evaluations and necessary benchmarks to hit. For me, I’ve been searching for a sign of intangibles displayed past gameplay; made worse by the failure of a frontrunner to emerge up to this point.
In terms of gameplay, Jameis Winston overwhelmingly won the battle. While decision-making, leadership, and protecting the football are paramount qualities, the biggest question mark I’ve held for both Winston and Taysom Hill is their ability to handle adversity. In the preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens, I was encouraged by Hill’s ability to overcome an entirely ineffective running game in his opening drive. For Winston, his impeccably executed two-minute drill came on the heels of an ill-taken sack on third-and-nine.
Each quarterback had a similar moment against Jacksonville. The stakes were lower for Winston; he had just capped off a stellar opening series with a 43-yard touchdown pass. But two uncharacteristic offensive line penalties turned 6 yards into 16 on third down, effectively stifling the drive’s momentum. Winston threw an incompletion, and the Jaguars took the field.
In response, Winston decisively marched downfield, amassing 54 passing yards in his second scoring drive with an incredible 29-yard touchdown pass to Marquez Callaway. This set the stage up perfectly for Taysom Hill to seize his moment; Winston’s response to his own adversity threw the pressure directly on Hill. All Hill had to do was execute. He instead opened with an incompletion, a short pass to Nick Vannett, and a sack – despite a negating holding penalty by J.R. Sweezy. And while this should have fueled a fire to respond fiercely, Hill just looked like he saw ghosts the entire time he took the field. By the time his touchdown drive came late in the third quarter, it was too little too late.
Drew Brees, like most NFL quarterbacks (perhaps not named Patrick Mahomes), isn’t above making errors. Brees faltered in drives, threw interceptions, took sacks when he shouldn’t, and was often stifled when the offense failed around him. His ability to shake off poor plays, regain composure, surgically execute two-minute drills, and lead the third-most fourth quarter comebacks of all time are the intangibles intertwined with his play that made Brees great.
More importantly, Brees always leaned on his strengths. He never tried to be something he was not. While accounting for weaknesses is equally important, one must know – and turn to – what makes them great. Hill knows that his athleticism makes him great. And yet, we’ve seen not one trace of his mobility to inspire confidence under center. As the receiving group kept dropping like flies all offseason, my edge went to Hill for the sole fact of his ability to make plays without needing to air it out. When the pocket collapsed in Baltimore, Hill flashed when he scrambled in the pocket and threw a perfect pass in stride to Callaway amidst imminent pressure. We’ve seen the RPOs and a glimpse of potential packages in a Hill-designed offense.
While an elite quarterback becomes increasingly essential in the modern NFL, there are several serviceable quarterbacks who can make do in a favorable system. Hill’s path to success frankly should have been much simpler than Winston, who offers less dimension as a run threat. If the first and second reads aren’t there, it’s time to take off; Ian Book has showed more awareness of this through camp than Hill. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the successor to Brees certainly won’t be sculpted in a singular offseason. And if we’re being honest, Hill was always the frontrunner for the job – Sean Payton inexplicably keeping Hill in for two full quarters and declining to call this race (despite needlessly telling Peter King this game would decide the battle) all but show that. Yet, Hill failed the ultimate challenge: just being himself.
As this quarterback battle transpired, I’d written that the worst thing to happen would be to have the starter win not by merit, but by default as the lesser of two evils – in which case, both lost. In the game against Jacksonville, Winston all but won this competition. What should greatly aid the decision is that Hill simultaneously lost it.
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