New Orleans Saints: Will Ian Book get a shot in 2021?

The New Orleans Saints are moving into the post-Drew Brees era with massive question marks at the quarterback position. The team was able to get out of salary cap purgatory for the time being while re-signing former number one overall pick Jameis Winston to compete with Taysom Hill.

The Saints signed Winston to a one-year, $5.5 million deal in the offseason after he threw just 11 passes for the team a season ago. Considering the fact that Drew Brees had injury issues in 2020, Winston’s lack of playing time is slightly alarming.

Taysom Hill had eight rushing touchdowns and four passing touchdowns on 121 attempts as the primary backup to Brees last season. The fact that Hill was the top guy for New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton when Brees went down says a lot about what the team’s plans for 2021 NFL Draft pick Ian Book might be.

Book is the winningest quarterback in the history of Notre Dame football, and his resumé as a member of the Irish is undoubtedly a major reason he was picked in the fourth round of the draft.

Only six feet tall, 210 pounds, Book is certainly not the prototype when it comes to size at the quarterback position. With that said, he’s an outstanding athlete and there are some shades of Johnny Manziel in his game when the pocket breaks down.

Book can get outside the pocket and make plays and he has at least above-average arm talent with some really nice zip on his passes.

It’s not common for fourth-round draft picks to come in and start as rookies, but we saw in 2016 what happened when Tony Romo got hurt in Dallas and was replaced by Dak Prescott, who was phenomenal throughout the 2016 preseason.

We have also recently seen Kirk Cousins develop into one of the better starters in the NFL as a former fourth-round pick, and it’s not impossible to think that Sean Payton had some playing time in mind for Book in the 2021 season.

Book’s competitive toughness, experience, and playmaking ability will certainly make him tough to ignore when he gets a chance to go out there in preseason play.

Whether he gets a chance because of injury, stellar preseason performance, or just because the Saints want to get him a shot at some regular season snaps, it won’t be shocking to see him out on the field at some point this season.

He has to go out there and prove that he can master Sean Payton’s offense with the New Orleans Saints early on and if he can do that, who knows what might happen in his rookie year?