Tag: Taysom Hill

WATCH: Teddy Bridgewater crashes in his old spot on the Saints bench

Carolina Panthers QB Teddy Bridgewater ran out of bounds and kept going, until he fell in his old place on the New Orleans Saints sideline.

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New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton found time to chuckle after squeaking out a win against Carolina Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, his former protรฉgรฉ.

“I don’t remember him moving that well,” Payton said in his postgame media conference call. “He got out of some tough looks. Obviously he played well.”

Bridgewater ran twice to gain 10 yards, but one of those scrambles went out of bounds — and into the Saints sideline. His momentum carried him past a bemused Alvin Kamara until he fell into the New Orleans bench, right in his old spot between Drew Brees and Taysom Hill.

All three quarterbacks laughed about it before Bridgewater jumped back to his feet and hustled back into the game, where he finished with one of his better stat lines as a pro: completing 23 of 28 passes for 254 yards and a couple of touchdown strikes.

It wasn’t enough to win the day, but it came close. Bridgewater surprised the Saints several times on Sunday, at one point chirping with Payton after each team committed off-setting penalties. It’s clear that he’s still well-liked by the Saints coaches and locker room, and likely by many fans. They’ll just have to avoid cheering for him too loudly when Bridgewater’s Panthers are pushing New Orleans for a much-needed division win.

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2021 NFL mock draft: Ending the Drew Brees era in New Orleans

Could the New Orleans Saints spend their first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft on a replacement for Drew Brees?

While his Monday Night Football comeback was impressive, there’s still no denying that Drew Brees could be playing his final season as an NFL quarterback.

Yes, the New Orleans Saints have a pair of talented potential replacements in Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston, but would that stop them from spending their first-round pick in next year’s draft on another young quarterback?

That’s what happens in the latest 2021 NFL mock draft from CBS Sports, which has the Saints making Florida’s Kyle Trask the heir apparent to the future Hall of Famer

CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson breaks down why the Saints could opt for Trask over Winston and Hill as the team’s future at quarterback:

Drew Brees continues to struggles to throw the ball down the field, and that won’t magically improve as he gets older. Trask has only helped himself this season after just earning the starting job a year ago for the Gators. There’s a lot to like about his game, even if he’s a traditional drop-back quarterback in an age where athleticism is a big part of QB play.

Trask is the fourth quarterback off the board in this mock, following Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence (No. 1 overall, New York Jets), Ohio State’s Justin Fields (No. 3 overall, Washington Football Team) and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance (No. 12 overall, Minnesota Vikings).

One of the fastest-rising prospects in the country, Trask has been dominant for the Gators so far this season. The 6-5, 240-pound senior has thrown for nearly 1,000 yards through his first three games, with 14 touchdowns and just one interception, completing over 71 percent of his passes.

It’s still not a given that Brees retires after this season, and with the financial investment the Saints have made in Hill, he’s still in play as the team’s franchise quarterback if Brees hangs up his cleats. But the Saints could go in a different direction in next year’s draft, if the right player falls to them.

To check out the full first-round projection at CBS Sports, click here.

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Watch: Saints’ Alvin Kamara, Taysom Hill deliver big-time plays

Taysom Hill scored on a running play after Alvin Kamara made a great catch in the fourth quarter.

The New Orleans Saints trailed 27-20 in the final minutes of regulation Monday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, and Taysom Hill came up big.

First, Brees threw a pass that Kamara made an incredible catch on while going out of bounds for 28 yards.

Check this out:

Then, Sean Payton showed the kind of guts that make him a great coach. It was third-and-4 with less than a minute left. Brees to throw the ball, correct?

The future Hall of Famer wasn’t on the field. Payton sent in Swiss Army Knife Hill, who had fumbled in two previous games.

Hill took the snap, rolled right, and rolled straight into the end zone. The PAT by Will Lutz tied the game at 27.

PODCAST: One last look at Week 3 troubles, previewing Saints-Lions

The latest episode of the Saints Wire podcast looks back on Week 3’s loss to the Packers, before previewing Week 4’s game with the Lions.

The latest episode of the Saints Wire Podcast is up, hosted by Ryan Oโ€™Leary (@RyanOLearySMGย on Twitter) with Saints Wire managing editor John Sigler (@john_siglerr). You can subscribe for new episodes released each Thursday on Apple Podcasts or your podcast service of choice.

This week, we’re taking a hard look at what went wrong against the Green Bay Packers before turning our attention to Week 4’s matchup with the Detroit Lions. Things haven’t gone the Saints’ way so far, but it’s too soon to count Drew Brees out just yet. Of course it would help if teammates on defense like Cameron Jordan and Marshon Lattimore played up to their usually high standards.

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WATCH: Jon Gruden raves about Saints QB/TE/football player Taysom Hill

Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden is a big fan of his Monday Night Football opponent, New Orleans Saints backup quarterback Taysom Hill.

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Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden just loves football, man. When previewing his team’s Week 2 matchup, Gruden waxed poetic on New Orleans Saints backup quarterback Taysom Hill as the epitome of a position-less “football player” who puts as much enthusiasm into the game as Gruden feels himself.

“I don’t remember a quarterback who can throw and run read options, and then line up at tight end,” Gruden said, grinning. “This guy’s a weapon, he’s a special teams demon, he can be the personal protector on the punt team. He’s a great football player.”

Hill lined up at ten different spots in 2019 (up from nine positions in 2018) and caught the first pass thrown in the 2020 season for a 14-yard gain. And Gruden is right to point out Hill’s proficiency in the kicking game, even if his snaps count fell to just 12 plays after he averaged 23 special teams snaps per game in 2019 (not counting the games Drew Brees missed to injury, totaling 31 snaps in those five contests).

Beyond his own stats on returning kickoffs (with a career average of 24.0 yards per return, and a personal-best of 47 yards), Hill has blocked a pair of punts against the division-rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers (in 2018) and Atlanta Falcons (in 2019) while collecting 13 combined tackles in the kicking game. He’s a force, and the Saints clearly want to keep him in positions to thrive. And that’s keeping Gruden’s attention.

“You know a lot of guys call it, ‘He’s a football player?'” Gruden continued, pantomiming quotation marks. “This guy’s a ‘football player.’ He can play anywhere on the ‘football’ field. And you gotta be aware of No. 7, because he can ruin the game. And they have a great package to keep us off his scent. You know you just can’t prepare for him, [you have to prepare] for anything. He’s just a ‘football player.'”

We’ll see what sort of heroics Hill has in store for Gruden’s Raiders very soon. In Week 1, he ran three times to pick up 13 yards on the ground and connected with Alvin Kamara on a 38-yard completion, in addition to his opening-drive 14-yard reception. He’s already padding out his impressive highlight reel, and from the sound of it, Gruden is as eager to see the finished product as anyone else.

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Saints-Alvin Kamara contract extension is a big step towards a new era

The New Orleans Saints are set to kick off the Taysom Hill era in 2021, with Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas becoming his new best friends.

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Don’t look now, but the New Orleans Saints are changing before our eyes. Last summer, they inked superstar wide receiver Michael Thomas to a five-year contract extension. Now they’ve repeated the stunt with running back Alvin Kamara, tying him to the team through 2025.

It sets the stage for life after Drew Brees; signs point to the franchise quarterback hanging up his cleats after the 2020 season, making Taysom Hill (who has a $16.159 million cap hit next year) the favorite to start in 2021. And now Hill knows that he’ll have Thomas and Kamara on hand to make his life a little easier.

That puts Hill in a terrific position to succeed. There aren’t many first-year starting quarterbacks around the NFL who can boast a pair of pass-catchers as talented as Thomas and Kamara, whose presence will take a lot of pressure off Hill’s shoulders. Kamara in particular has benefited from working with Hill on option plays in the past, and it’ll be exciting to see what sort of playbook Sean Payton is cooking up for them.

Let’s not lose sight of what this means for Kamara. He’s now earning top dollar, which is just as much a reward for his past production as an expectation of how he’ll perform moving forwards. Now that he’s recovered from his 2019 knee injury, he figures to be just as explosive and versatile a weapon as ever. He’s poised for a great dubt against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday — his numbers as a runner (54.8) and receiver (67.5) are stronger against them than any other NFC South rival.

In Brees’ heyday, the Saints rarely paid out market-setting contracts to their top receiving weapons. Marques Colston never ranked among the highest-paid receivers. Jimmy Graham was traded a year into his big extension. Kenny Stills and Brandin Cooks were traded before the Saints ever sat them down to talk shop.

But Kamara and Thomas are both viewed differently than any pass-catchers to come before them in Payton’s tenure; that’s clear from the contracts they’ve received. Those two players are going to be the pillar of the Saints offense for years to come. If Hill’s 2021 season goes as well as hoped, he’ll join them.

Who else will still be around for the next phase of Saints football? Kamara is the first big-name 2021 free agent to re-sign with the team, but they have an inventory full of contributors. Defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins (whose restructure helped facilitate Kamara’s new deal), free safety Marcus Williams, tight end Jared Cook, cornerback P.J. Williams, quarterback Jameis Winston, and linebackers Demario Davis, Alex Anzalone, and Craig Robertson all headline next summer’s list of players needing new contracts.

It’s great that the Saints got Kamara’s extension out of the way. Now they have to shift gears and decide which free agent-to-be to tackle next.

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Saints have one of the NFL’s oldest rosters in 2020

The Saints have stocked up on older talent, hoping veterans like Malcolm Jenkins and Emmanuel Sanders can take them to the 2020 Super Bowl.

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Very few teams have a higher average age for players than the New Orleans Saints, per Jimmy Kempski of Philly Voice. In fact, just one: the Atlanta Falcons (26.9 years). The Chicago Bears are tied with the Saints (26.7 each), making them the three oldest teams in the NFL, on average.

But context matters here. The Saints may be ranked all the way down the list at No. 30, but teams listed near the middle of the pack like the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, and Philadelphia Eagles (tied for No. 17) have an average age of just 26.0. So the Saints players are about eight months older, collectively, than mid-tier squads. Just one team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, has an average of below 25 (and they’re listed at 24.9).

So let’s not blow this out of proportion. The Saints do have some aging veterans at key spots like quarterback (Drew Brees is 41, and Taysom Hill is 30), tight end (Jared Cook is 33 and Josh Hill is 30), punter (Thomas Morstead is 34), and cornerback (Janoris Jenkins and Patrick Robinson will both be 32 this year), but they’re balanced by a young core of talent that’s been drafted and developed over recent years. It’s not like everyone is about to bolt into retirement.

How does this compare to previous Saints teams? From 2019 to 2016, they’ve carried an average age fluctuating between 26.2 (at its lowest, in 2019) and 26.5 (at its highest, in 2017). That’s pretty consistent, and has ranked in the bottom third of the NFL.

But it’s tough to argue with their results. In this same time period, the Saints have won three consecutive NFC South titles and gone as deep into the playoffs as the NFC Championship Game. They have their sights on a Super Bowl victory, and this group of experienced veterans and young stars just might have what it takes to reach that goal in 2020.

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Saints waive rookie QB/TE prospect Tommy Stevens

The New Orleans Saints waived Tommy Stevens, a rookie prospect out of Mississippi State who converted to tight end from quarterback.

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Here’s a shock at the New Orleans Saints roster cuts deadline: the team has waived rookie tight end Tommy Stevens, its final pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Saints traded their sixth-round selection in 2021 so that they could add Stevens in the seventh round, protecting him from being signed as a rookie free agent by the division-rival Carolina Panthers.

Stevens played quarterback at Mississippi State and Penn State, but was converted to tight end by the Saints in an effort to pick up the reins from versatile playmaker Taysom Hill — who is spending more and more time under center as the clock ticks away on the end for Drew Brees’ NFL career.

The rookie had played well enough in training camp to earn a spot on the practice squad, but first he’ll have to clear through waivers. That may be difficult if another team like the Panthers takes an interest in him. Stevens was coached up by Panthers offensive coordinator (and former Saints assistant) Joe Brady at Penn State, where he pioneered the playbook that Hill later made famous.

Waiver wire claims will be processed by noon E.T. on Sunday. Check back to see whether Stevens will remain with the team that drafted him.

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WATCH: Saints cap training camp with the best quarterbacks challenge of 2020

The New Orleans Saints capped off their 2020 training camp with the best quarterbacks challenge of the year, adding coach Pete Carmichael.

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There haven’t been many of the usual quarterback challenges after practice during this year’s New Orleans Saints training camp, but the passers made the most of their opportunity after their final day of work was in the books.

Drew Brees, Taysom Hill, and Jameis Winston were joined by a few new faces in their trick-shot competition on Friday, including a dark horse candidate to win it all: offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael. Carmichael may not pack quite as much star power as previous guest stars like Zion Williamson and Philip Rivers, but he might have the best arm of anyone on Airline Drive.

See it for yourself in the video we’ve embedded below:

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Comparing every starting QB to a different rapper

Raiders writer Maliik Obee, better known asย @NFLMaliik on Twitter, compared every current starting quarterback in the league to a different hip-hop artist with an explanation for each.

The start of the NFL’s 2020 regular season is still a few weeks away and without a preseason, there isn’t much for fans to talk about other than training camp practice highlights.

Sometimes we rely on player comparisons to fill the void. But who says we have to restrict our comparisons to a single sport, or even the same genre?

Writer Maliik Obee, better known asย @NFLMaliik on Twitter, compared every current starting quarterback to a different hip-hop artist. Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan was described as rapper Freddie Gibbs:

There’s some other really interesting comparisons that Falcons fans will enjoy, especially this savagely accurate description Saints QB Taysom Hill.

Check out the rest of Obee’s QB/rapper comparisons below.

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