With Drew Brees out, the operating assumption among basically everyone who pays any attention was that Jameis Winston would start at quarterback. Winston has his significant flaws—we’ll outline those in a piece a little later today—but he’s also a 70 game starter with a tremendous arm who could lift Emmanuel Sanders and Jared Cook with the offense banged up. It seemed logical to assume that, but as we know with Sean Payton, logic is not always the determining factor.
That’s why it was never entirely fair to rule out the team starting Taysom Hill, a 30-year-old try-hard who has thrown 18 passes in his entire career.