Travis Hunter, the one-of-a-kind cornerback/wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, made his Monday Night Football debut a couple of weeks ago. In honor of the second-overall pick's first primetime appearance, ESPN decided to go through the 31 other teams and select who their version of Hunter would be.
For the New Orleans Saints, they settled on Taysom Hill, a player who's been labeled as everything from a fullback to a quarterback and most recently as a "joker" (a versatile player who can be used in multiple positions to create mismatches, a role that can be either offensive or defensive). And while Hill has never taken a snap on defense, his former head coach Dennis Allen believed that he could.
Hill was originally signed by the Green Bay Packers as an Undrafted Free Agent back in 2017. After being a part of the final roster cuts, the Saints would claim him off of waivers. In the eight years since, Hill has gathered 11 passing touchdowns, 34 rushing touchdowns, and 11 receiving touchdowns, putting himself in prestigious company. Only other person to have at least 10 touchdowns in those three categories is Hall of Famer Frank Gifford.
What can Taysom Hill do in Kellen Moore's offense?
Kellen Moore, the young offensive mind brought over from the Philadelphia Eagles as the Saints' new head coach, said in his introductory press conference that Hill would be an important part of the offense. "A lot of us have been chasing Taysom Hills for a very, very long time," he said to the media. "ultimately, there’s one Taysom Hill, and that’s very important for everyone to recognize."
Unfortunately for Moore, Hill would miss training camp and the first chunk of the season due to a knee injury, which was later revealed to be a tear of five ligaments. But, over the past two weeks, he's been back on the field and even scored a rushing touchdown last week. "Anytime you get in the end zone in the NFL, it's a great thing," Hill said to the media on Monday. "There's things we wanna continue to build on, but at the end of the day we live in an outcome-oriented league, tryna win football games."
As Hill has been slowly inching his way back on the field, his role in the offense has been gradually expanding. So far in Kellen Moore's offense, he's done just about everything except take a snap on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe we'll see that later this week, when the Saints travel up north to take on DA and the Chicago Bears.