Saints’ Taysom Hill creates concerns for Cleveland Browns
BEREA — Myles Garrett makes a living chasing after quarterbacks. So few people may be better served at understanding how much more involved in the running game NFL quarterbacks have gotten just in his six seasons in the league than the Browns All-Pro defensive end.
“It seems like everyone is trying to find someone who could do both the way the game’s going,” Garrett said Thursday. “You have some guys who are different like (Arizona’s) Kyler (Murray) and (Baltimore’s) Lamar (Jackson) and you have bigger guys like (Buffalo’s) Josh (Allen) and (New Orleans’) Taysom (Hill). You still have pocket passers, but it seems like they’re a dying breed.
“So it’s really a multi-way to factor when everyone can do it and the threat you can face week to week depending on who’s back there. You have mobile guys like Taysom who’s not the starter. You have to have a game plan for each of them and give them the appropriate respect.”
Garrett and the Browns defense this week have to specifically game plan for both kinds of quarterbacks as they get ready to play host to the Saints. They’ll see the traditional drop-back pocket passer in New Orleans’ starting quarterback, Andy Dalton, whom they’re intimately familiar with from his years playing for the Cincinnati Bengals.
However, there’s also going to be a sizeable portion of the game plan dedicated to the challenges they’re going to face when Hill comes into the game. There’s a big difference with him, however, compared to any of the other quarterbacks Garrett referenced who add a plus-one dynamic to the run game.
Hill, technically, isn’t listed as a quarterback on the Saints roster. He was claimed off waivers from Green Bay in 2017 after being drafted as a quarterback and playing the position in college at BYU.
However, New Orleans lists Hill as a tight end on the roster. How they use him, though, creates a challenge for opponents that may make the 6-foot-2, 221-pounder as much of a one-of-one as there is in the NFL.
“Just his versatility,” safety Ronnie Harrison Jr. told the Beacon Journal this week. “With him able to play quarterback, receiver, tight end, wherever they line him up, he can be effective. Just have to be aware of where he is on the field, because he brings a different package when he’s in the game. We just have to be aware of him.”
Hill has played in 13 of the Saints’ 14 games this season. All eight of his starts have come at tight end, but he has taken snaps at quarterback in all 13 of his appearances.
So, naturally, it would be assumed that those snaps would be designed run plays. After all, why else would you take out your starting quarterback who also is seventh in the league in passer rating as Dalton is over his 11 starts this season?
Ask the Atlanta Falcons how that works out. Last Sunday in New Orleans’ 21-18 win, Hill came in for Dalton on the second play of its second series.
Instead of running it or, as he did on the previous series, handing the ball off to Alvin Kamara, Hill dropped back to pass. The Falcons secondary froze for a minute on the play, allowing Rashid Shaheed to get by them for a wide-open 68-yard touchdown pass.
It was one of Hill’s two passes in the game, both of which were completed for a total of 80 yards. For the season, he’s completed 11 of 17 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns.
“You gotta play it true,” Harrison said. “Just because he’s in the game, you can’t think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be all quarterback runs or he’s not going to throw the ball.’ Just gotta play it true and have good eyes when he’s in the game.”
Hill, though, does provide a running threat as well. In that same game, he ran seven times for 30 yards, and is New Orleans’ second-leading rusher with 449 yards and five touchdowns on 68 attempts.