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Don’t look now, but New Orleans Saints quarterback Taysom Hill has turned into a real weapon in Sean Payton’s passing game. Hill finished the 2019 season tied with wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith in receiving yards (234) and one more touchdown catch (6, against Smith’s 5). He and Smith were tied for the sixth-most receiving yards on the team, while Hill’s receiving touchdowns placed third-best (wide receiver Michael Thomas and tight end Jared Cook tied for first, with 9 scoring grabs).
As Payton explains it, Hill’s growth into a legitimate receiving threat wasn’t really part of the plan. It was just a natural evolution from his success on special teams and bit-part on offense.
Payton said, “Yeah, I think it’s just continued to expand. I think that we’ve seen him in special teams. We’ve seen him block on offense. We’ve seen him run down the field vertically and each week it’s just expanded relative to his role. I think he’s handled it well. He has a lot of hats.”
When asked how the other receivers react to Hill’s continued development, all Payton could do was chuckle.
“We give them a hard time because sometimes he runs like Barney Rubble, but he runs fast,” Payton joked, referencing the caveman from old “The Flintstones” cartoons. Hill may be athletic, but he’s rarely aesthetic. His rumbling, tumbling style of running doesn’t look as pretty as the smooth track-and-field speed Smith or Ted Ginn Jr. may enjoy, but there’s no questioning his effectiveness. Payton continued, “I think he has real good sense and awareness of coverage. He’s smart, he understands how to set up routes and I think he had a big play yesterday but, but I think he has real good football intelligence.”
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