Mickey Loomis on Jameis Winston: We’ve added a talented player

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Jameis Winston will wear No. 2 with the Saints. The Saints will list him as either No. 2 or No. 3 on their depth chart.

Winston started 70 of a possible 77 games — he served a three-game suspension in 2018 — during his five seasons in Tampa after the Buccaneers selected him No. 1 overall. Winston took a paycut and a demotion in going to New Orleans.

“The one thing that we’ll miss here with the offseason and the OTAs and the minicamps is that’s an opportunity for some of the guys who are new to get a lot of work in, so we’re not going to have that opportunity,” Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis said on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Thursday. “But look, with Jameis, we had a chance to add a talented player who we thought a lot of coming out of Florida State and then thought a lot of playing against him the last few years. So it’s a chance to add a guy into that room that has a lot of talent, and we’ll see where it goes. No different than what we did with Teddy Bridgewater.”

Bridgewater signed two one-year contracts with the Saints, starting one game in 2018 and five in 2019. He signed this offseason with the Panthers to become their starting quarterback.

The Saints, of course, have Drew Brees as their starting quarterback and are expected to list do-everything quarterback Taysom Hill as Brees’ backup. Saints coach Sean Payton has said, though, that the team will have three quarterbacks active on game day, which is what they did last year when Brees was healthy.

The Saints drafted Mississippi State quarterback Tommy Stevens in the seventh round, and Loomis was asked about Stevens’ role.

“Tommy Stevens is a different type of player,” Loomis said. “I would say he’s more along the Taysom Hill mold of a very good athlete, very versatile, can do a lot of things. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens as we get to the regular season. In terms of the reps and the work, we’ll see how that sorts out. But we’ve got a veteran quarterback in Drew that can come in and, listen, he doesn’t need a lot of preparation, obviously, like you would someone who is new. Sean, I know, will sort that out, and every guy will be prepared.”