METAIRIE, La. -- Taysom Hill’s role in the New Orleans Saints’ offense has constantly evolved.
His seventh season promises more of the same.
Even though he was listed as a tight end when the team held its three-day minicamp in June, Hill was seen catching passes, working with the special teams units and also taking third-team reps at quarterback.
“The last few days, I spent more time with the QBs on some days and spent more time with some tight ends the other,” Hill said in June. “I never felt like they were asking me to do too much.”
Saints coach Dennis Allen described him best as a “football player" last summer.
But a lack of a defined role is certainly not the norm for a player who is about a month from his 33rd birthday and is the third-oldest player on the roster. It’s an age where some players, like teammate Cameron Jordan, are getting questions about whether they’re contemplating retirement.
Hill, who didn’t enter the league until he was 27, has always forged his own path.
Saints running back Jamaal Williams, who was Hill’s teammate at BYU, described the 6-foot-2, 221-pound Hill as a "big power back" despite Hill playing quarterback in college.
“You give him that little open lane, let him open up and run, he starts moving like a big, buff gazelle,” Williams said.
That’s one way to describe Hill, who had a career-high 96 carries for 575 yards and seven touchdowns last season. But, despite Allen determining that Hill would move to tight end last offseason, he had more completed passes (13) than receptions (9).
When asked if the tight ends room would be his main focus this year, Hill shrugged and said he didn’t know. It’s all about balancing where the coaches feel he fits best on that particular week.
“We have an open line of communication,” Hill said. “As we look at the snap count, how many carries was I averaging a game? How many times was I throwing the ball? How many times was I lined up as a tight end? Maybe part of that is in the tight end room, part of that is in the QB room and part that is working … with the running backs.”
Juggling so many things isn’t typical for most players, but Hill said the six years he’s spent in the system has made it second nature by this point.
He joined the Saints in 2017 as a core special teams player, had his best success as a “do-everything” utility player for the next several years, and vied for the starting quarterback position in 2020 and 2021.
Last season seemed to suit him well, however. At times, his production carried offense. He rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown in the opener against the Atlanta Falcons, accounted for four touchdowns (one passing and three rushing) in Week 5 against the Seattle Seahawks and effectively ran the ball against the Cleveland Browns in windy and cold conditions despite waiting almost an entire half to get his first carry in Week 16.
“A guy like Taysom, who’s bigger than this stage, give the ball to him, and he’s faster than my truck,” quarterback Derek Carr said. “He runs through and he runs over a couple of guys and he gets a first down. You watch it on tape and it happens over and over again.”
Those bursts of success have caused offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael to blame himself for not getting Hill the ball more.
“Pete and I have been together now for six, going into seven years. Pete and I have a great relationship,” Hill said. “We have a lot of these conversations. ... He’s great to work with and super realistic, super reasonable.”
Moving Hill around seems to be the best strategy instead of making him the third running back behind Williams and Alvin Kamara or the third tight end behind Foster Moreau and Juwan Johnson. The Saints will have to find snaps for everyone, and that’s one of the reasons they have no intention of narrowing the scope of his role.
Instead, they hope to expand his role as a pass-catcher, something he’s never done on a consistent basis.
His most successful year as a pass-catcher was when he had 19 receptions for 234 yards and six touchdowns in 2019, but he's had only 21 catches since.
“I think maybe doing more as a receiver,” Carmichael said. “I think that’s kind of stuff that hasn’t been explored a ton with me, here.”
But Hill thinks that may be a thing with him more so than with his OC.
“I think running routes and catching balls, that was a foreign thing for me,” Hill said. "I also think because of that, we haven’t done a ton of it.
"I think the nice thing is that I’m put in different situations. I can go at it and say, ‘If I was throwing the ball to me, I’m going to do whatever I want the receiver to do if I was throwing it to him.’ Having that perspective has helped me and maybe made that transition a little smoother.”