Tag: Taysom Hill

Watch: Saints produce must-see Taysom Hill hype video

The New Orleans Saints celebrated their contract extension with Taysom Hill by producing a hype video featuring Dwight from “The Office.”

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What better way to celebrate Taysom Hill’s contract extension with the New Orleans Saints than an incredibly well-produced highlight reel? The Saints released just that after news broke on his new deal with the team, sharing the video from their official Twitter account.

Beyond the many explosive plays Hill created last season, it also features a cameo from “The Office” cult favorite Dwight and a series of viral video stars. It’s a lot of fun, which is also how you’d headline Hill’s scouting report. Check the video out where we’ve embedded it below, or by following this link:

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Making sense of the overhauled Saints quarterbacks depth chart

The New Orleans Saints quarterbacks room is suddenly very crowded between Drew Brees, Taysom Hill, Tommy Stevens, and soon, Jameis Winston.

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The New Orleans Saints went into the 2020 NFL Draft with just two quarterbacks under contract for the upcoming season: Drew Brees and Taysom Hill.

Now that the draft is behind us, the Saints are on the verge of adding not only rookie draft pick Tommy Stevens to the equation, but also Jameis Winston. The former first-overall pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers chose New Orleans over other suitors as a free agent, eager to work with Brees and the Saints coaching staff in a bid to turn his career around.

But how do all these pieces fit together?

Right now, the Saints playbook has a clear division between what it’s running most of the time (with Brees under center) and a special package of plays designed for a more mobile, versatile passer (when Hill steps in). When you consider the skills sets and backgrounds of Winston and Stevens, it’s easy to see each player’s role.

Winston is a traditional pocket passer, trained in running a pro-style offense much like Brees. While he has to cut down on the negative plays, the Saints could swap Winston for Brees in an emergency without throwing out most of the plays that they like to run. It would take much more time to transition to an offense designed with Hill in mind, and likely limit what the Saints can do, especially mid-game.

Conversely, Stevens was once Hill’s prototype. The package the Saints have developed for Hill was first put together by Joe Brady; ever heard of him? Before he was the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator, and before he rose to stardom during the LSU Tigers title run, Brady was an assistant coach for the Saints. And prior to joining New Orleans, he worked with Stevens at Penn State.

As a gadget player in 2016, Stevens ran 21 times in six games, gaining 198 rushing yards and scoring on two different touchdown runs. His workload increased with each subsequent season, executing many of the same concepts that Hill has used to light up the NFL. He’s six years younger than Hill and nearly as athletic, with an intimate knowledge of the playbook. Stevens is No. 7’s backup and maybe the long-term replacement for that role once Hill starts playing quarterback full-time.

So don’t look at the depth chart as Brees-Hill-Winston-Stevens. The Saints are basically working with two different systems here, with Winston slotted in as the understudy for Brees and Stevens backing up Hill. It’s a little more complicated than most quarterback situations you’ll find around the NFL, but it’s the best way the Saints have come up with to keep their offense running on-script.

At some point New Orleans will marry their two different schemes together, once Hill is starting, and that’ll be fascinating to watch. Until then, though, they have bigger fish to fry. This might be their last shot to win a Super Bowl with No. 9 in the building.

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Taysom Hill’s new contract frees up the franchise tag for Alvin Kamara

Taysom Hill will not be a candidate for the franchise tag in 2021, but Saints RB Alvin Kamara might face that hurdle before free agency.

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The New Orleans Saints’ decision to sign Taysom Hill to a two-year contract extension impacts more than the backup quarterback himself. While it does guarantee Hill will be around in 2021 (likely as the starting quarterback), his new deal sends a ripple effect throughout the roster. One teammate who could feel an immediate reaction: running back Alvin Kamara.

Kamara headlines a star-studded list of Saints free agents in the 2021 offseason, including veterans like Demario Davis, Jared Cook, Larry Warford, and Sheldon Rankins. Kamara can be counted among a group of young talents ready to cash in on their first big NFL contracts, along with Marcus Williams. Contract extensions with depth players and projected starters such as Kiko Alonso, Alex Anzalone, Craig Robertson, and Justin Hardee are also going to be on the docket.

Kamara stands apart from the rest as a prime candidate for receiving the franchise tag. While the number will go up as the salary cap rises and new contracts are signed with star players around the league, the 2020 franchise tag for running backs was valued at a fully-guaranteed $10,278,000. The less-valuable transition tag was worth just $8,483,000, but teams rarely use it because they receive no compensation should the player leave on a new deal with another squad.

Would New Orleans have considered using the franchise tag on Hill? Maybe. That might have led to arbitration hearings in which Hill’s camp could argue about which position he should be considered for the tag’s purposes, whether at quarterback, tight end, or even receiver. He wears more hats than anyone else in the NFL, so that might have gotten dicey. And deciding between Hill or Kamara could have been one really difficult conversation. Now, though, the Saints won’t have to worry about it.

If the Saints have a difficult time hammering out a new deal with Kamara this offseason (or if they simply choose not to try), tagging him in 2021 would be something they consider. The Saints have used the franchise tag before in retaining playmakers like Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham, eventually working out long-term extensions with both of them. It’s possible they try that approach again with Kamara, if need be.

It won’t come to that, hopefully. But the rising cost of running back salaries and the uncertain longevity of the position (as well as the Saints’ hesitance to pay skills-position talent) means it might be the only way Kamara plays for the Saints after the 2020 season. New Orleans made a strong effort to re-sign pillars of the team like Cameron Jordan, Michael Thomas, and Wil Lutz last summer. Maybe they’ll make Kamara a similar priority this year.

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Taysom Hill’s new deal tees him up to start at QB in 2021

Now that Taysom Hill has signed a contract extension with the New Orleans Saints, he is the clear heir-apparent behind Drew Brees.

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The NFL landscape was just beginning to settle in the wake of the 2020 NFL Draft when the New Orleans Saints signed backup quarterback Taysom Hill to a two-year, $21 million contract extension. That move doesn’t just grant Hill financial stability — it puts him in the driver’s seat to start at quarterback once Drew Brees has moved on.

That might happen as soon as 2021. While Brees also signed a two-year deal, it’s structured so that the Saints will be accountable for a little over $22 million against the salary cap should he retire after the 2020 season. If he plays, that number climbs up to north of $30 million. Brees has already signed on with NBC Sports in a broadcasting role, so it appears increasingly likely that 2020 will be his last ride.

Which means Hill would be the favorite to start at quarterback, with a salary at around $16 million. That’s comparable to what Andy Dalton and Jacoby Brissett have earned in recent years. It’s tough to complain about that kind of payout for a quarterback who, at worst, might be a one-year band-aid until the Saints can find their next passer. At best, it might end up looking like a bargain if Hill thrives as the full-time starter.

Still, don’t be surprised if the Saints take a proactive approach in adding more quarterbacks next offseason. Hill and rookie seventh-round pick Tommy Stevens are the only passers under contract (assuming Brees retires) past the 2020 season, with Jameis Winston expected to sign just a one-year deal. Things are shaking up in New Orleans and fans should be preparing for it.

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Taysom Hill thanks Saints, announces new contract extension

New Orleans Saints quarterback Taysom Hill thanked the team for the opportunity they’ve given him with his new two-year contract extension.

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The New Orleans Saints reached an agreement with backup quarterback Taysom Hill on a two-year contract extension, and he was excited to sign the offer they put on the table.

Hill announced the new deal from his official Instagram account, thanking the team for the opportunity and the chance they took on him. Hill first joined the Saints as an older prospect out of college who had already washed out of one NFL team. Now he’s the projected starter once Drew Brees hangs up his cleats, possibly as soon as in 2021.

You can see Hill’s message where we’ve embedded it below:

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Taysom Hill’s new Saints contract earns fiery Twitter reactions from NFL fans

The New Orleans Saints signed Taysom Hill to a two-year contract extension, prompting NFL Twitter to explode in an outpouring of reactions.

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Nothing brings avid football fans together like Taysom Hill. Whether he’s dropping back to pass or catching a throw himself, the damage he does to their fantasy football teams and carefully curated data spreadsheets is sure to get Twitter riled up.

On Sunday, Hill committed an even greater sin by signing a two-year, $21 million contract extension with the Saints that includes $16 million in guarantees. It puts him in prime position to take over for Drew Brees in 2021 as the Saints starting quarterback, while also putting football writers across the country in a fit as they try to rationalize how the Saints could spend so irresponsibly.

See the reactions for yourself:

 

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Details on Taysom Hill’s contract extension with the Saints

The New Orleans Saints signed Taysom Hill to a contract extension averaging more than $10 million per year, making him a highly-paid backup.

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Here’s a bombshell: the New Orleans Saints signed backup quarterback, special teams ace, and do-it-all weapon Taysom Hill to a contract extension through the 2021 season on Sunday. Per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, Hill is cashing in with a two-year deal valued at $21 million, with $16 million in guarantees and another $1 million in incentives.

That’s an average of $10.5 million per year, with 76% of the new money guaranteed. It’s a significant payout for a backup passer — making Hill by far the NFL’s highest-paid No. 2 — but as we’ve seen before, he’s much more than a clipboard-holder on the sidelines. Hill influences the game in a number of unique ways for the Saints, so they’re really paying him for a wide range of responsibilities beyond wearing a headset.

The Saints are also paying Hill a salary that suggests he’ll be more than a backup. He’ll get a real shot at competing for the starting quarterback job in 2021 if Brees retires.

We don’t know how much of those guarantees are tied to a signing bonus, so it’s tough to forecast Hill’s annual salary cap hits. And it makes learning how this contract is structured even more fascinating. The Saints often use automatically voided years to spread out salary cap resources, and that could come into play again with Hill (especially considering that the Saints have just over $4 million in 2020 cap space to work with right now).

However it shakes out, Hill won’t test the free agent market until March 2022 at the soonest.

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Saints sign Taysom Hill to a contract extension through 2021

The New Orleans Saints signed backup quarterback Taysom Hill to a two-year contract extension, keeping him in town the through 2021 season.

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While the New Orleans Saints are still in negotiations with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston (and a deal may not be filed until after an upcoming NFL deadline), the team took action on Sunday to address another quarterback’s contract: Taysom Hill.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Saints signed Hill to a two-year contract extension that effectively adds another season onto the restricted free agent tender Hill was issued earlier this offseason. That one-year contract was valued at around $4.6 million, and while the new terms of his agreement are unclear just yet, it means that Hill will be a member of the Saints at least through the 2021 season.

That’s big for a couple of reasons, and it’s due to the various contract situations in flux in New Orleans. Drew Brees is taking things year-to-year with the Saints and has the option to retire after the upcoming season. Winston is reportedly focusing on a one-year deal with the Saints. Tommy Stevens, the seventh-round draft pick often compared to Hill, will sign a typical four-year rookie contract.

By extending Hill now, the Saints guarantee that they’ll have more than one quarterback signed on to play once the 2020 season wraps up.

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Jameis Winston is the definition of a low-risk, high-reward Saints move

The New Orleans Saints are expected to sign Jameis Winston to a one-year contract, adding he former Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB as a backup.

The New Orleans Saints are working to finalize a one-year contract with free agent quarterback Jameis Winston, though the deal is not signed just yet. That shouldn’t happen until after Monday’s cutoff for qualifying compensatory draft picks in 2021; signing Winston before it would jeopardize the third- and sixth-round selections the Saints are projected to receive, which they’ve already used in making trades in the 2020 draft.

But let’s not lose sight of what the Saints signing the former first-overall draft pick might mean. Winston is reportedly open to signing a one-year deal with the team, which NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport noted would be “less lucrative” than what he might earn as a starter in another spot. The opportunity to be tutored by Saints coach Sean Payton and his staff and mentored by Drew Brees seems to appeal to Winston, who has had an up-and-down career in Tampa Bay.

His results have almost looked like what Brett Favre’s stats might have been had the Atlanta Falcons not traded him to the Green Bay Packers early in his career, only stretched out over five years instead of just two games (Favre dropped back to pass five times for the Falcons, completing no passes, and threw two interceptions while taking a sack).

In 72 games for the Buccaneers, Winston completed 61.3% of his passes while averaging 274 yards per game. The trouble comes with his negative plays, having thrown 121 touchdown passes against 88 interceptions — 30 of them coming last year in Bruce Arians’ high-risk, high-volume offense. He also took 169 sacks, 47 of them last year. Those interceptions and sacks totals, and Winston’s 626 pass attempts, were all career-highs and partly reflect the situation he was put into.

That won’t happen in New Orleans. The Saints have a better offensive line, a more balanced offense, and a depth chart that won’t put Winston in before he’s ready, if at all. He’ll be the backup for Drew Brees — if he does end up signing, which hasn’t happened yet — while Taysom Hill continues starring on special teams and playing every position but quarterback on offense, with rookie prospect Tommy Stevens in place as Hill’s own understudy. It would take a nightmare situation like Brees injuring his throwing hand again for Saints fans to get an extended look at Winston in black and gold.

So what’s a best-case scenario look like? Ideally, Winston will only get a meaningless start at the end of the year once the Saints have secured the first seed in the NFC, and the bye week that comes with it. That will allow him to show how he’s grown and developed after a year of practicing with Saints coaches. He goes out, flashes all his positive qualities while obscuring the negatives, and signs a rich free agent contract next spring to earn the Saints another highly-valued comp pick. Every wins, including the Saints in Super Bowl LV.

And the worst-case scenario for Winston: he either gets forced into the lineup and is just as much a high-variance goofball as we saw in Tampa Bay and flops, killing the Saints’ playoff chances, or he gets involved in another legal dispute and the Saints cut him with little financial penalty. That’s the upside to signing free agents to one-year contracts far beneath a starter’s salary.

Either way, this is a smart move by both sides. Winston gets an opportunity to learn from some of the best to ever do it in the NFL, and the Saints get a stronger insurance policy for maybe the most critical season in franchise history. And that’s something to celebrate.

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Saints finalizing one-year contract with Jameis Winston

The New Orleans Saints are close to a deal with ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers first-overall draft pick Jameis Winston, but he hasn’t signed yet.

The New Orleans Saints aren’t finished adding depth to their quarterbacks room just yet. After trading back into the seventh round of this year’s draft to pick Mississippi State prospect Tommy Stevens, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports first reported that the team was finalizing a contract with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers first-overall draft pick Jameis Winston.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirmed the news, as did NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, but it’s important to recognize that the Saints have not signed Winston yet. Expect both sides to wait until after Monday’s 3 p.m. CT cutoff on veteran free agents factoring into the compensatory draft pick formula — signing Winston before it would possibly negate one of the extra picks the Saints are projected to get after losing Teddy Bridgewater and A.J. Klein in free agency. So this might just be a verbal agreement with Winston that won’t come into effect until after that deadline.

Schefter adds that Winston’s presence as more of a pocket-style passer would allow Taysom Hill to continue doing his thing as a runner, receiver, and blocker, giving the Saints an experienced backup to rely on in case Drew Brees misses time again. It’s a similar approach to what the team took with Teddy Bridgewater last year, who started five games when Brees went out with an injured throwing hand.

It’ll take some serious growth on Winston’s part both as a player (he was ousted from Tampa Bay after throwing a career-worst 30 interceptions, leading to Tom Brady signing with the Buccaneers) and a person, due to his history of off-the-field buffoonery and legal issues. So to be clear: the Saints signing Winston would not do anything to jeopardize Hill’s place as the heir-apparent, though he might offer long-term competition for Hill should he impress the Saints in a year’s worth of practice.

So stay tuned for updates. Winston has not signed a deal with the Saints yet, but it appears like he’s preparing to.

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