2017 Year in Review: QB? Taysom Hill

Taysom Hill was to New Orleans Saints fans what that new indie band is to hipsters: to the truest of fans, knowledge of Taysom Hill meant an instant connection and an automatic acknowledgment of the other’s knowledge of the team.

Hill might not be a well-known name to fans across the NFL, or even to most casual fans of the Saints, but when the third-string QB was inserted into the starting Special Teams unit, he began to make a name for himself amongst the die-hard.

As the 2017 wore on, the Saints issues on Special Teams was back to rearing its ugly head. Opposing return men were bringing the ball back past the 25 yard line on almost every kickoff. The Saints could generate little to no pressure on opposing punters. And on the flip side, if the Saints were forced to punt, even with Thomas Morstead’s booming leg, the opposition would rarely be forced to call for a fair catch.

And then came Taysom.

Taysom, a QB by nature, used his 4.4 speed to fly across the gridiron on special teams. He seemingly was around the ball for every coverage and every tackle from the moment he was put onto the field.

He obviously didn’t light up the stat sheet as a third-string QB, but on Special Teams, he without question provided a much-needed spark to help ignite a fire under the 2017 Saints. Any time he made a play you could see he was fired up about it, and it was contagious; the entire Saints sideline would be jumping up and down with ever play or near-miss from the young gunner.

His role in 2018 with the New Orleans Saints is clearly far from being determined. While Sean Payton has openly referred to Taysom as a potential successor to Drew Brees, it’s hard to imagine the Saints front office would risk that type of player to longterm injury on a special teams tackle.

Taysom has flashed his speed on offense in the NFL as well (granted, it was preseason, but still). Look at this scoot:

And he’s not ONLY speed. He can zing the ball when he needs to as well.

With evil genius Sean Payton at the helm, you can be sure that there will be some unique trick plays that could absolutely call Taysom’s number in the regular season in 2018. He could even see his time on the Saints offense increase lining out wide for the Saints, a role he appeared in sporadically near the end of the season and during the 2017 postseason.

So basically, Taysom is just your typical QB/WR/HB/ST player named “Taysom”.

How cliche.