ESPN’s Bill Barnwell ranks Saints with a top-10 2020 NFL offseason

The Saints received high marks from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell for their 2020 offseason moves, but he doesn’t like their contract with Taysom Hill

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The New Orleans Saints accomplished a lot in the 2020 offseason, retaining critical starters in David Onyemata and Andrus Peat while upgrading with free agents like Emmanuel Sanders and Malcolm Jenkins. In the draft, the Saints landed a big addition in Cesar Ruiz while getting deeper at both linebacker (with Zack Baun) and tight end (picking Adam Trautman).

And they’re now in position to start re-upping some of their own free agents ahead of the 2021 cycle, such as Alvin Kamara, Demario Davis, and Marcus Williams. It’s a great spot to be in before you even consider that this team has won 13 games in each of its last two seasons.

According to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, that was enough for the Saints to clock in as the NFL’s ninth most-successful team of the summer. But he took issue with one big move the Saints made: a weighty contract extension with Taysom Hill. Barnwell wrote:

After using the first-round tender on jack-of-all-trades Taysom Hill, they elected to lock up the BYU product through 2021 by handing him a one-year, $16.3 million pact that is almost fully guaranteed. Hill has yet to play even half of the offensive snaps in a single game, and there’s little evidence that he profiles as a viable long-term replacement for Brees. Hill turns 30 in August, and the Saints have trusted him to throw only 13 passes over the past two years, including one lone attempt over their five games without Brees in 2019. Hill has a passer rating of 46.6 on those throws. As a player who has touched the ball just under 50 times per season over the past two years, his usage rate needs to triple — or he needs to turn into a useful quarterback after Brees retires — to justify this deal.

It’s easy to see where Barnwell is coming from — that’s a lot of money to hand to an unproven player like Hill. But it makes sense in context of the Saints’ other moves at quarterback.

Hill was offered an extended contract after the Saints brought in Jameis Winston, who provides a clear and present danger to Hill’s claim as the heir-apparent to Drew Brees. By re-signing Hill now, the Saints made a show of good faith and essentially guaranteed his shot to start under center in 2021.

Even if Winston ends up outplaying Hill in training camp and becoming the top backup, Hill has more long-term security than Winston (whose below-market contract runs out after this season). This move was just as much about keeping a player the Saints value around for the foreseeable future as it was keeping him happy. It just might take some time for the decision to yield strong returns.

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