The New Orleans Saints have to find a way to replace Taysom Hill over their final five games, a sentence that is a lot easier to say that it is to actually do.
It's true because of all the roles the 34-year-old fills throughout every week, not the least of which is a short-yardage back. That's what he was doing when he absorbed a low hit that resulted in what doctors believe to be a torn ACL, head coach Darren Rizzi confirmed on Monday. He'll get additional opinions before charting a course forward, but his 2024 season is definitely over.
But all the other roles? That's more complicated. That becomes clear when you actually try to list all of his jobs:
- Tight end
- Fullback/H-back
- Wildcat QB/RB
- Punt personal protector
- Punt coverage/return
- FG rush
- Kick return/coverage
- Backup long snapper
- Backup holder
Remember the Bugs Bunny sketch where he plays all the positions in a baseball game? That's one of the few athletes Rizzi would compare with Hill in terms of his versatility, and that's only kind of a joke.
"I don’t know if I could compare him to anybody else that I’ve ever coached," Rizzi said, "because there’s not a guy that comes to mind that has been able to do all the different things that he’s been able to do just in one game, forget about his career."
There's been no talk yet of whether such an injury could spell the end to Hill's career, but at 34 and with a long injury history it's a question that will be asked. Taysom waved to the Superdome crowd as he was being carted off the field, with chants of "Taysom, Taysom, Taysom" raining down. It was a nice moment in what otherwise was a brutal result. The Saints continued their drive but fell short on 4th down in the red zone for a potential score that'd given the Saints a chance to go for 2 and the win. Derek Carr said the team was able to compartmentalize and it didn't affect how the game turned out, but it was still a heartbreaking moment for a team leader and star player to go down.
"In that moment it kind of pauses the game part of it and the competitiveness and you feel for someone ... but I like how our fans treated him and I would expect nothing less from our fans," Carr said. "When one of our guys goes down they’ve been great to support our guys, whether it’s going great or not — the way they treat him, that made me happy for him to have that moment.”
The next challenge is finding someone who can fill those roles. Scratch that, finding a group of people who can do all those things. Members of the TE room, rookie Dallin Holker for instance, will take on a bigger role. Kendre MIller is expected back off IR this week and he'll pick up slack in the run game. Young receivers like Kevin Austin Jr. and potentially Bub Means, if he comes back from IR, could get more looks in the passing game.
"It means everybody else has to step up," Rizzi said. "He fills so many roles, so it’s got to be a lot of different guys that have to be part of the solution there."
The Saints aren't better without Taysom Hill, not by a long shot, but the good news is they have a certain level of experience playing without him. Hill has dealt with multiple injuries already this season that saw him leave early in Week 2 (at Cowboys/chest) and miss Week 3 (vs Eagles). He also left early in Week 4 (at Falcons/rib) and missed Weeks 5, 6 and 7 (at Chiefs, vs Bucs, vs Broncos).
The Saints are 1-5 in those games listed above, and they're 0-4 in the games Taysom Hill hasn't played. Of the five Saints games this season where they didn't crack 100 yards rushing, four are games that Hill did not play. Two are also games that starting QB Derek Carr didn't play.
"We’ve done a good job these last few weeks of getting a lot of different guys involved and that’s going to have to remain the same," Rizzi continued. "Again, it’s hard to sit here and tell you that you can replace Taysom. You can’t, he’s a phenomenal person, player, leader, captain, all those things. It’s certainly a big loss but that’s all we can do is everyone else has to step up.”
