Taysom Hill on Approach to Saints' QB Battle: 'There Is No Replacing a Drew Brees'

New Orleans Saints quarterback Taysom Hill said he's "excited" about the opportunity to compete for the team's starting job, though he understands the difficulty of filling a void left by a future Hall of Famer like Drew Brees.

Hill discussed his outlook for the upcoming season with Rod Walker of the New Orleans Advocate on Monday:

"I think the thing that I realize first and foremost is there is no replacing a Drew Brees. He's one of the greatest to ever do it. But I think as I got ready to enter the NFL, my goal and my mindset was to just do everything I can to have an opportunity to be a guy. Because there are only 32 starters in the NFL. So as I look forward into this year and training camp and OTAs and the season, I'm really just excited about having that opportunity. That has been the goal and the mindset since I was a rookie in 2017 first entering the NFL. So it's definitely something that I'm not taking lightly and I'm going to give it everything I've got."

Hill will compete with Jameis Winston for the top spot on the quarterback depth chart throughout training camp and the preseason.

When Brees, who retired in March, was injured last season, the Saints handed the keys of the offense to Hill on a full-time basis for the first time in his four-year career.

The 30-year-old BYU product responded well, completing 71.9 percent of his throws for 834 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions across four starts. He added 209 rushing yards and four scores on the ground.

Hill, who said he's a "quarterback at heart" despite his main usage as a multifaceted offensive weapon while Brees was under center, told Walker he's focused more on personal improvement than a competition with Winston:

"Obviously there are individual goals and goals at the high end. But there has been so much conversation about competition, competition and all this, but at the end of the day for me, I have some things that I feel like will help me be as good as I possibly can. To me that has always been my goal and my competition. So as a quarterback, it's always centered around decision-making, timing, accuracy. At the end of the day, I'm constantly competing with myself to be as good of a player as I possibly can be. That competition never ends. Whether it's on the football [field] or whether it's in life, I feel like I'm always competing with myself to be as good of a person and as good of a player as I possibly can."

While Hill has limited experience as a starting quarterback, Winston is basically the antithesis of Brees, one of the most accurate throwers in NFL history. The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers starter is a high-risk, high-reward player who threw 33 touchdowns and 30 picks for the Bucs in 2019.

That may give Hill the inside track on the starting job if he can prove effective in protecting the football throughout the preseason.

It feels like a true toss-up competition heading into training camp, though.