Saints News

By Nick Underhill

Taysom Hill’s performance at organized team activities might have been one of the more anticipated events of the offseason.

The Saints were able to see the quarterback play some last year during practices, but those moments came on Wednesdays when he was running the scout team. But the plays he was running were foreign to him. He’d look at a card, attempt to run the play, and then go back and repeat the process. Nothing about it was natural. It wasn’t the stuff he was learning in meeting rooms; he was acting as someone else.

The coaching staff was able to see some of his tools, like how he throws the ball, moves around the pocket and runs, but it is hard to get an honest evaluation without seeing a quarterback run his own team’s plays.

“There were a few days where I’d get to run the scout team, but I was joking around with a few guys that this is the first opportunity I’ve had to take a rep at quarterback in the New Orleans Saints’ offense,” Hill said. “The last three days have been a ton of fun.”

The past three days have been encouraging for Hill. He became a curiosity last season when Troy Aikman and Joe Buck said during a Fox broadcast that the Saints believes Hill is the quarterback of the future, comments coach Sean Payton later said were overblown and taken out of context.

But it's clear the Saints think Hill has promise, and that has started to show up early this week. Hill has made many plays, including on Thursday when he hit wide receiver Eldridge Massington on a deep pass down the right sideline. He later showed off his athleticism when he escaped a blitz and took off for a long gain.

Full Story - The Advocate