For the first time in 16 years, the Saints are likely going to have a new quarterback under center when the 2021 season starts, and right now, it's not clear who that quarterback is going to be. With Drew Brees expected to retire this offseason, the Saints could turn to someone on their roster, they could try to sign someone or they could even attempt to pull off a trade.
According to Saints star Cam Jordan, it appears the Saints are going with Option 1. It appears Sean Payton has already decided who the next starting quarterback is going to be and during a recent interview on "The Great Dane" Podcast with Morten Andersen, Jordan revealed the name of that player.
The subject came up when Andersen asked Jordan if Taysom Hill would be the team's next starting quarterback.
"Jameis Winston up next, I believe, is what Sean Payton said," Jordan said.
Not only did Jordan point out that Winston would likely be the next starting quarterback, but he also added Payton has been kind of hinting at it all offseason. The Saints coach has done multiple interviews over the past month and in most of those interviews, he spent some serious time talking about how excited he would be to have Winston on the roster, even though the quarterback is currently set to be a free agent on March 17.
"Sean wouldn't say he's 'fighting for Jameis to be back' if our goal was to have Taysom," Jordan said.
That being said, it should probably be noted that Jordan concluded the quarterback discussion by pointing out that Payton could end up going any route and that the quarterback decision is "beyond my pay grade."
Speaking of Payton, he definitely did have some glowing words for Winston when he was asked about the quarterback during the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
"We had a year with him. He was fantastic as a leader," Payton said, via ESPN.com. "He's got tremendous arm talent. He's a young prospect that we like a lot. When you have a player for a season, he's kind of giving you a chance to see what he's about, and there's a little bit of an audition there. But the same audition takes place for us. He's getting a chance to see, 'Hey, this is how they do it here. Does this fit me? Does this head coach, this position coach? Is this a place I feel comfortable playing?'"
If I'm Hill and I heard my head coach say those things about the other guy, I'd assume the other guy is going to be the starter.
Of course, there's always a chance that neither of those guys end up as the Saints' starting quarterback in 2021 and that's because there's still a small possibility that Brees returns. The 42-year-old still hasn't announced his retirement, which means he might still be mulling things over, so we can't completely rule out a Brees return. Also, if you're looking for a dark-horse candidate to be the Saints starter, let's go ahead and throw Russell Wilson's name out there.
There's been some serious friction between Wilson and the Seahawks this offseason, and according to The Athletic, Wilson's camp went to Seattle's front office and "broached" the idea of a potential trade and one of the four teams that was mentioned as a landing spot was the Saints. For more on that situation, be sure to click here.
