NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JANUARY 05: Taysom Hill #7 of the New Orleans Saints warms up before the NFC Wild Card Playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings at Mercedes Benz Superdome on January 05, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Taysom Hill’s role in Sean Payton’s offense is rapidly-expanding, and soon might include a job title he’s been seeking all along — successor to Saints legend Drew Brees.
Taysom Hill’s journey from gimmick to one of the more highly-coveted backups in the NFL has been well-documented, and often doubted, by experts and pundits alike. Yet, as Brees enters his age-42 season, Sean Payton’s enthusiasm about the BYU product has never wavered.
Payton reaffirmed Hill’s standing to The Athletic’s Jay Glazer, and it’s time we all took the Super Bowl-winning coach at his word.
“I think Sean was always hoping to unleash him on the league without anyone seeing him before but now we’ve seen it with Lamar Jackson,” Glazer wrote. “He’s a bigger Lamar Jackson. No, it’s not a smokescreen. He likes him that much, he’ll be the guy. He’s with the perfect coach for that.”
Hill’s statistics — most notably his 13 career passing attempts — are often used as fodder for those who suggest he’ll never develop into anything more than a trick-play artist, used in one or two-play packages to keep defenses honest. The Saints quite clearly think otherwise, given the first-round tender placed on the 29-year-old this offseason.
While he’s not Lamar Jackson, at least not yet, Hill’s ability in the ground game with an offense specifically tailored to him would be a scary sight. When a mastermind like Payton fully buys in, the potential is limitless.
Suggesting Hill will be nothing more than a footnote on the Brees era in New Orleans not only disregards his accomplishments thus far in the NFL, but also indirectly questions Payton’s overall impact on an offense.
If Payton has earned anything over the years, it’s our trust in his ability as a play-caller. In this case, he’s not bluffing about his vision of the future of the quarterback position in the Bayou.