The New Orleans Saints look to be getting some reinforcements for Week 5 after all.
Both QB Taysom Hill and TE Foster Moreau were activated from the NFL's PUP list on Sunday, a clear sign that they are expected to be active against the Giants. The Saints sent WR Trey Palmer to IR and waived rookie TE Moliki Matavao, clearing the two spots necessary.
The signs pointed to unlikely for an immediate return following long rehab stints for major knee injuries for both players and three limited practices this week, but head coach Kellen Moore and his players left the door open for a return this week.
"I have to anticipate playing as soon as possible," Moreau said this week. "That’s what I have to do. That’s my job, and so it’s like, knowing that … makes it extremely difficult, but after today I felt great. I was really enthusiastic about the performance.”
Moreau will provide much-needed depth behind TE Juwan Johnson, who has dealt with an ankle injury throughout the week and is listed as questionable for the game. The bigger surprise comes for Hill, who at 35 years old and in the final year of his current contract seemed like a potential candidate to call it a career after his latest major injury and surgery.
Hill said from the beginning that he'd chosen to rehab like he would play again, and that Saints head coach Kellen Moore and GM Mickey Loomis saw a role for him when the time came.
"I love playing football," Hill said. "Football has given me and my family some incredible experiences and given us incredible opportunities and you realize that football is – there’s a shelf life to doing this and ... I wasn’t ready to walk away."
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The most interesting element surrounding Hill is where he'll factor in to the Saints' offensive attack. After multiple seasons of being listed as a TE on the team's roster, he's back to appearing as a QB, a deal he doesn't care about now nearly as much as he did early in his career. It's matched how he's worked throughout his rehab, which has been largely in the quarterback room. Out at practice this week he got in work with both the tight ends and quarterbacks.
Moore has yet to define Hill's role, but the image is of a player who's role resembles one much more like we saw during Payton's regime. Should the Saints view him as a viable backup option, they could choose to have rookie Tyler Shough serve as the emergency third option. Going that route would mean Hill is potentially available in offensive scenarios such as short yardage. Hill was jokingly asked if he was built to run the tush push play, a question to which he responded with a laugh and "probably." The Saints have run that play twice to this point and have been penalized both times. They also failed on a 2-point conversion attempt on a design that looked right out of the Taysom playbook.
At the end of the day, wherever the Saints want Taysom to line up is all right by him, he's done it all before.
“I’m grateful to be here. ... I’ve felt a lot of emotions through this week of practice, and I’ve felt a lot of love from my teammates and that’s been a great experience for me," Hill said. "At the end of the day I want to come in and, you know, help us in any way that I can and whether I’m designated as a QB or tight end or whatever, it doesn’t make any difference.”
The Saints (0-4) host the Giants (1-3) on Sunday at noon in the Caesars Superdome. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.