Category: Taysom Hill

Saints TE Taysom Hill thanks fans, prepares for surgery after torn ACL

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill thanked fans on social media for their support before undergoing surgery:

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The New Orleans Saints have been bitten by the injury bug plenty of times this season, but few have been has hard to swallow as the loss of Taysom Hill.

Amongst all of the strife over the last few years, Hill’s commitment to team has made him a favorite for pretty much every Saints fan. To see him fall victim to another brutal injury, this time a torn ACL against the Los Angeles Rams, was quite upsetting.

The do-it-all tight end recently took to Instagram, though, to share an update on how he is feeling after the injury.

The main points made in the message are that he is in good spirits as he prepares for surgery. He thanked all fans for the outpouring of support and is confident that he will make a full recovery.

Many pondered if this latest injury would bring his time in black and gold to an end, but it appears as though the 34-year-old will try to make his way back to the field.

In eight seasons playing for New Orleans, Hill has 3,380 yards of scrimmage for 44 touchdowns. He also had 2,369 passing yards with 11 more scores. That doesn’t even cover the contributions he has made on special teams. A true once-in-a-lifetime player.

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B/R looks at the long-term impact of Taysom Hill’s injury

This Bleacher Report writer took a look at how Taysom Hill’s injury potentially impacts the New Orleans Saints offseason:

Taysom Hill’s season is over after suffering an ACL injury against the Los Angeles Rams. The New Orleans Saints are having to grapple with how they will attempt to supplant Hill’s versatility for the remainder of the season

Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox took it one step further and sees Hill’s injury as one of the injuries that will shake up the offseason.

Hill’s versatility is his greatest trait as a player. He can block from the fullback or tight end, run the football from running back or quarterback, and also catch the football from all those positions, other than quarterback

That is the value he brings to New Orleans, but it’s also the reason he creates such a wide void. Knox suggests the Saints may move on from Hill due to age and injury, or salary. Releasing him as a post-June 1 cut would save $10 million against the cap, but the Saints wouldn’t get those savings until after the draft and free agency has passed them by.

The injury could result in the Saints needing a new tight end and rushing threat if Hill is unable to return or the Saints choose to not bring Hill back in 2025. It’s certainly a storyline we’ll have to watch closely in the spring.

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Saints formally place Taysom Hill on injured reserve, ending his season

The New Orleans Saints put Taysom Hill on injured reserve on Friday, formally ending his season after last week’s serious knee injury:

This was expected, but that doesn’t make it easier to accept. The New Orleans Saints placed Taysom Hill on injured reserve on Friday, formally ending his season after last week’s serious knee injury. Life comes at you fast in the NFL. Last week, Hill was selected as the NFC Offensive Player of the Week. This week his season is over.

Hill suffered a torn ACL and other damage to his left knee in a collision with other players late in the Saints’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams; this season was his most productive in the NFL despite dealing with some other injuries. Hill appeared in just eight games but averaged his best numbers in rushing yards per game (34.8) and receiving yards per game (23.4), scoring six touchdowns as a runner and receiver.

Will Hill be back in 2025? He’s under contract for just one more season and will turn 35 next year. Retirement would help the Saints out from a salary cap perspective, but there’s no replacing Hill’s importance to the team. That’s a question he’ll need to answer on another day. For now, we’ll wish him well in recovery.

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Saints won’t abandon the Taysom Hill package even without Hill

Taysom Hill is out for the season, but the Saints plan to continue using plays designed for him with a committee in his absence:

There’s a reason they call Taysom Hill a Swiss army knife. He contributed to the New Orleans Saints offense in a variety of ways before going down with a season ending injury last week.

How do you replace someone like that? Despite not having Hill for the remainder of the season, Darren Rizzi doesn’t plan on abandoning the Taysom Hill game plan even without Taysom Hill.

The difference will be how the Saints approach that portion of the playbook. You’ll never find a replica of Hill. As Rizzi said, “I don’t know if there’s another guy in the league who can do what he does.”

New Orleans is going with a committee approach. We’ve seen this before when Hill was injured, with guys like Alvin Kamara, Juwan Johnson, and Adam Prentice doing different things he’d normally be responsible for. Rizzi continued, “All the plays and different packages and things we run are going to have to be distributed differently.”

The most unique aspect of Hill’s game is his ability to run from a direct snap. New Orleans has no plans to discard this aspect of the offense either. Rizzi put it plainly: “We’re going to have that stuff still in the game plan.”

Rizzi didn’t want to disclose much, but he did reveal they’re trying out a few players in that role and “take a look at how it looks this week.”

Replacing Hill is no easy feat. How New Orleans replaces him will be one of the more interesting storylines to close out the season.

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Taysom Hill is out for the year after Week 13 knee injury

Breaking: Taysom Hill is out for the year after a Week 13 injury, which included damage to his ACL and other parts of his knee:

Testing on Taysom Hill’s injured knee confirmed the New Orleans Saints’ fears: ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that imaging revealed a season-ending injury for the star playmaker, which NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill clarified meant damage to his ACL and other parts of his knee.

It’s the latest in a series of lower-body injuries dating back to Hill’s college career. The 34-year old has suffered everything from broken bones to sprained tendons and planter fasciitis, on top of this new ligament issue. Hill could be forgiven for choosing to call it a career at this point, but we shouldn’t speculate too much about his future.

For now the Saints are going to have to find out ways to win without him. They’re 4-4 in games he’s dressed for this season and 0-4 in games he’s missed. Hill was one of the first players offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak sat down with when he accepted the job, and the positionless playmaker was a key part of his plans for 2024. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s next for both of them.

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Derek Carr reacts to Taysom Hill’s injury: ‘It’s bigger than football’

Derek Carr was upset to see Taysom Hill go down with an injury against the Rams: ‘It’s bigger than football in that moment’

Disaster hit the New Orleans Saints late in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams when star playmaker Taysom Hill left the field with what’s believed to be a significant knee injury. Hill, the reigning NFC Offensive Player of the Week, took a helmet to the knee when running for a first down and was down for several minutes being attended to by the medical staff.

Many of his fans were upset to see him hurt; Hill’s physical style of play and skills as a chess piece who can line up anywhere have endeared him to a lot of supporters. One of those was Derek Carr. The Saints quarterback shared his reaction to Hill’s reaction after the game.

“It’s the worst,” Carr told reporters, adding that he hadn’t yet heard details about Hill’s status. He continued, “Just as a brother, as a friend. It’s bigger than football at that moment.”

Carr has gone on the record to call Hill one of the best football players he’s ever shared a field with, so he was right there with many Saints fans watching worriedly when No. 7 went down. And he appreciated the cheers of support for Hill as he was carted off to the locker room.

“I love how our fans treated him. I expected nothing less from our fans. The way they treated him,” Carr reflected. “It was not not a good time for him but that was really cool.”

Here’s hoping Hill’s injury isn’t as severe as it looked, but the Saints are bracing for the worst. Stay tuned for updates.

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Taysom Hill carted off after big hit vs. Rams

Taysom Hill was carted off after a big hit against the Los Angeles Rams. The New Orleans Saints star is a huge loss:

This isn’t what you want to see. New Orleans Saints do-it-all tight end Taysom Hill went down with an injury late in Week 13’s game with the Los Angeles Rams, leaving the game on a medical cart after initially being evaluated on the field.

Hill had taken a direct snap out of shotgun and ran to the left, picking up just enough yards to convert a fresh set of downs in Los Angeles territory. But he collided with several players on his way to the turf. Hill’s helmet collided with his teammate Cesar Ruiz’s shoulder pad, but the more serious injury appeared to be his left leg getting trapped between a couple of Rams defenders as it hit a helmet.

His return was officially announced as doubtful. Hill raised a fist to the crowd chanting his name as players from both teams wished him well. Hopefully he makes a clean recovery and this wasn’t as bad as it looked.

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Former Saints quarterback on why Taysom Hill is one of a kind

Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Steve Walsh shared his take on what he feels Taysom Hill brings to the table, and why Hill is ultimately one of a kind:

Taysom Hill has been on an absolute tear as of late, reaching multiple milestones as he’s been a pivotal part of the New Orleans Saints snapping a seven-game losing streak and replacing it with a two-game winning streak.

He’s a jack-of-all-trades that has never fully been able to be replicated, despite several NFL teams’ desperate efforts to do so. At the same time, it’s often said that a player like Hill is not to be invested in as a pure quarterback for the long-term.

That experiment has also been tried and failed as a part of a trend that ultimately faded away. Former Saints quarterback Steve Walsh is among those who shares that line of thinking.

“A guy like Taysom Hill is not going to last. You’re not going to invest 40 million dollars in a guy and let him run QB power, because those 10 million-dollar linebackers know how to hit you, and they know how to hurt you,” Walsh told me an interview for RG.org. “So you’re just not going to survive.”

A player like Hill is also, from a dollars and cents perspective, not going to be smart to go all in on for NFL teams.

“The economics don’t make sense in that type of quarterback. Now, is that somebody you like as your backup or your number three guy that can give you a change of pace?” Walsh continued. “Cam Newton played best when he was running QB power because that’s just how he played. But, he wasn’t going to be able to do that for an extended period of time; like a 15-year career.”

Quarterback or not, there is no denying the wave of success Hill has recently experienced.

Hill tallied 138 rushing yards on seven carries and 50 receiving yards from eight catches injury the Saints’ 35-14 win over the Cleveland Browns.

That wasn’t all he did to earn him the title of FedEx Air and Ground player of the week, though, either.

He also threw a pass for 18 yards and got some special teams action with 42 yards on a kick return. Very few players can put together a three-way performance quite like that.

How he and the Saints continue to build upon the new era they seem to have begun will be something to keep an eye on in a season that could ultimately be much more interesting that it looked like it would be just weeks ago.

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Saints are getting the most out of Taysom Hill, and they shouldn’t slow down

Taysom Hill had his most touches of the year on Sunday, and he’s too impactful to return to the sideline. They should keep leaning on him:

To call Taysom Hill’s performance against the Cleveland Browns incredible feels like an understatement. The New Orleans Saints tight end reverted back to the days of when he was a positionless player.

Hill totaled over 200 yards, so saying this next statement may seem a bit obvious. However, the Saints have to use Hill like that every week. Let’s go deeper than production because that level won’t happen weekly. Let’s focus on touches.

Taysom Hill should be used as a secondary rushing option to Alvin Kamara and one of the most prominent receiving threats, due to Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed’s injuries

This was only the second time this season Hill has touched the football 10 or more times. That number includes rushes, receptions and pass attempts. If you take away passes, Sunday was the first time Hill hit double digit touches.

Hill’s usage as a passer has increased recently. Over the last four weeks, Hill has attempted a pass in three of the four games. It’s a good way to keep defenses on their heels a little bit when Hill is taking the snap.

Passing can vary on a game to game basis, but his targets and rushes should remain at this pace. Hill caught 8 of 10 targets and ran the ball seven times.

Seven rushes feels like a reasonable mark to stretch for each week. The Saints don’t have many receiving threats, so three catches is doable. That’s a recipe for a minimum of 10 touches in a game. Hill is way to impactful for that to not happen on a regular basis.

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Taysom Hill just won his second FedEx Air & Ground Player of the Week award

Just one tight end has won the FedEx Air & Ground Player of the Week award in its 22-year history, and Taysom Hill has now done that twice:

The FedEx Air & Ground Player of the Week awards have been a mainstay of NFL honors for 22 years, but just one tight end has earned it. And now he’s done it twice. New Orleans Saints star Taysom Hill won the award for the second time after his huge day against the Cleveland Browns, powering the Saints to a dominant win at home with three touchdown runs.

Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix was also recognized with this week’s award after completing 28 of 33 passes for 307 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Broncos’ big win over the Atlanta Falcons.

FedEx has pledged that they “will make a $2,000 donation in Hill’s name to a Historically Black College or University of his choice, which will be applied towards needs-based scholarships to deserving HBCU students.”

Hill set some new personal-bests along the way, too. Hill totaled 138 rushing yards from seven carries and 50 receiving yards off of eight catches. He also completed an 18-yard pass and picked up 42 yards on a kick return, impacting the game on both offense and special teams. It’s not the type of performance you see too often in today’s game.

And it goes to show how special Hill is, and how important his presence is to the Saints’ success. They may not win every game when he sees such a heavy workload, but Hill playing well does tend to correlate with victories. When he’s running with a head full of steam there aren’t many NFL defenses who can slow him down.

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