The question now asked about Saints quarterback Taysom Hill hasn’t changed much from the question that was asked about him when he was playing at BYU.
It is, in fact, the same.
Is he an authentic quarterback or is he something else, something with slashes and hybrids and mashups and yeah-buts mixed in?
Is he football’s version of a conjunction junction?
The answers, in short, are … he is something else, something out of the ordinary, a kind of human fusion.
And that’s not all a good thing or all a bad, it’s just not what anyone who roots for the former Cougar wants to hear. It’s not what he wants to hear. It’s not what the Saints want to hear.
But it’s the truth.
Hill is a version of a quarterback who does a lot of things other quarterbacks cannot do — the man can run with the wind, punch with power, he might well be able to jump over the moon — but there are a couple of things he struggles to do with consistency, things that are pretty important for a QB in the NFL, things such as … read defenses and throw the ball accurately.
But he is the quarterback, in name, who was handed the responsibility a couple of weeks ago to run the Saints’ offense, to lead the attack in the absence of Drew Brees for one of the best teams in pro football.
Brees, a passer destined for the Hall of Fame, busted what was reported to be 11 ribs — if that’s even possible — and suffered a collapsed lung and is mending, he said, “as fast as I can.” Nobody is sure, yet, how long that will take. He missed a game against the Falcons and also last week’s mess of an outing at Denver, a game in which the Broncos had to start a practice squad receiver at quarterback because of COVID troubles. This week, the Saints travel to Atlanta to face the Falcons again, and Brees will miss that one, too.
“I feel better every day, gradually ramping things up with what I’m able to do, understanding that there’s just a healing process that has to take place,” Brees told a reporter on Sunday. “But man, I’m pushing it. I’m trying to get back …”
Sooner rather than later.
Still, New Orleans is winning. It has a 9-2 record that is bettered only by two teams — the 11-0 Steelers and the 10-1 Chiefs, favorites from the AFC to make it to the Super Bowl. Whether the Saints can climb through the NFC to meet either one of them or some other team will depend largely on Hill’s performance — until Brees is able to bounce back, to travel at high altitude in an airplane or laugh without grunting and hurting on a couch, let alone throw the long ball or take a hit.
That leaves Hill in Brees’ place, unless he loses that slot to the other Saints backup, Jameis Winston.
The former BYU quarterback has started all of two NFL games in his career, and the results were collectively ho-hum. He played well against the Falcons, using his legs and his arm, and he played crappy against the Broncos, posting a 43.2 passer rating and throwing for just 78 yards, completing 10 passes, nine if you don’t include the interception he threw.
That game was a little weird, considering the Broncos had no quarterback and managed to scrounge up just three points. The Saints played cautiously on offense, keeping the ball on the ground, and easily won.
But even the Saints themselves aren’t quite sure what they have in Hill.
They know what everybody knows — that he’s a smart dude in matters of the mind, a physical specimen with toughness and ability to move, so much ability that he’s been used as a running back, a tight end, a receiver and on special teams. Hill may have one of the highest profiles — and strangest — of any quarterback who isn’t a starter in the league.
But the ultimate questions for any pro quarterback are those nagging stragglers: Can he make sound decisions, read right, and spin the ball with precision downfield?
Those remain clouded in uncertainty.
He can do it some of the time, but can he do it enough of the time?
Those answers have been floating somewhere out in the ozone for years, trailing back to Hill’s days in Provo. At the NFL level, he appears to lack confidence in his arm for ample reason — he’s not sure he can trust it, not into the nasty grille of pro defensive backs.
Often, he relies on his ability to do things himself — as though he’s playing back on the prep fields in Pocatello, where he grew up.
He was never conventional, and that was part of his charm, hurdling over tacklers and lowering his pads for collisions in open spaces. And if he had been able to properly smooth his talents behind center in college, without having so much of that opportunity disrupted by injuries, maybe his reading and recognition and his arm talents would have been better honed, better developed, better demonstrated.
At BYU, Hill was china in a bull shop.
And frequently, when in doubt, he would and could just do it himself.
His throws back then, when he was able to play, were strong, looking at times as though they were launched out of the extended barrel of an M-1 Abrams. But tender tosses were sometimes problematic, as were accurate ones. He didn’t mind throwing when the decisions were clear, when the windows were open and large, but when things got complicated, when pinpoint targeting was necessary, things were less charming.
That’s the way they are now, again.
Maybe Hill needs time, maybe he can live and play and learn and prosper.
If he can get his deficiencies worked out, how fun would that be to watch?
The possibilities are worth rooting for.
But his success as an NFL athlete so far has more to do with his raw abilities than with the refinements of a polished quarterback. He’s been most effective for the Saints in his duality, in his multiple roles, in his penchant for surprise, as a hybrid, as a guy who can come in, mix things up and keep defenses off kilter.
But when he’s called upon, especially against a quality opponent, to put the trickery away, to fold up the Swiss Army knife, to cross out the X factor, and just be a quarterback who delivers the ball into the face of adversity, that’s where the complications arise.
Perhaps he will master the call. He showed well the last time the Saints played the Falcons. But can he do that week in, week out? Is he a legitimate replacement for Brees when the great one walks away for good?
Brees’ team, the one Hill wants to make his own, the one attempting to position itself for favorable playoff position in the NFC, would love to get affirmative answers to those floating questions in the week and the weeks ahead.
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 2-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.
Follow @GordonMonson