Taysom Hill, The Next Quarterback Of The Saints?

As I was listening to The Herd with Colin Cowherd yesterday something kind of shocked me, I was hearing Jay Glazer one of the most well connected people in the NFL and he was talking about the Quarternacks that are going to be free agents and how each one is in a different situation, but what stood out to me was his insight information regarding the New Orleans Saints.

Drew Brees is over 40 and pondering retirement, if he wants to return Sean Payton has made it clear that the job is his, but here is the interesting part that caught me off guard. The New Orleans Saints believe they already have their franchise QB of the future in place and his name is not Teddy Bridgewater, According to Glazer the do it all BYU product is the heir parent to the all time leading passer in the NFL.

One would assume that if this is their thought process it's been that way for a while, they didn't decide Hill can be the guy after this season and if we look back at the way he was used in 2019, it's even more weird.

27 rushes for 156 yards and a TD

19 receptions for 139 yards and 6 TDs

Plus 287 special teams' snaps 62% of the team total.

His usage in the offense increased from 17% to 23% in terms of offensive snaps from 2018 to 2019, his special teams usage decreased from 80% to 62% during the same timeframe.

The adjustment in how he was used could be an indicator of a change in terms of how he is viewed long term, but at the same time 287 special teams' snaps for a player you think has a chance even if it is a small one to become your franchise QB for the foreseeable future is the definition of unnecessary risk, also it's not like he is Devin Hester returning kicks in fact he doesn't even return kicks, Hill works mostly as a gunner. His contribution offensively was huge and his importance within their scheme grew linearly as the season went on, we can't knock Payton for his usage there, but 62% of all special teams' snaps is a lot. Something feels off regarding all of this.

It's hard to evaluate Hill as a Quarterback because he hasn't really played as one that often and the jury is still out on him but based on the very limited sample size his arm is decent but not overwhelming, can he be accurate consistently in the NFL? Which is like the number one thing for any QB. I don't know. Can he read defenses and adjust accordingly? Also don't know, most of his plays don't really allow him to do that, Sean Payton will definitely help him by making his job as easy as he can, but ultimately I think we can all agree that even if he turns out to be that guy, there is a ceilling there.

Another puzzling fact is that when Brees was injured early in the year, Bridgewater started and there wasn't even a debate, a rumour about Hill getting a look, what that indicates is that they either thought Teddy

was the better short term fix to keep them in the hunt and didn't want to expose Hill by throwing him in a uncomfortable situation or something happened between that time and right now to change Payton's mind and made him look at his do it all QB as the potential successor to Brees. Now we will never know how we reached this point but I am intrigued to see what happens in the next 3 years or so with the New Orleans Saints.

Lastly it is important to point out that if this statement that Taysom Hill is viewed within the Saints' front office as possibly their next signalcaller, we can rule out New Orleans from being a big player in the FA market for the QB position and it's much more doubtful now that they'll take a QB in the first round, such a scenario was very plausible a week ago.

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