The Saints clearly don’t intend on letting Taysom Hill go anywhere. New Orleans is planning to place a first-round tender on the restricted free agent, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Hill can still sign an offer sheet with another team, but the Saints will have the opportunity to match it. If they declined to do so, the offering team would have to give the Saints their first-round pick. It’s extremely rare for a team to be willing to give up a first-round pick for a restricted free agent, but Saints coach Sean Payton said recently he thought a team would still make an offer for Hill even if they put the first-round tender on him.
To that end, it sounds like the Saints are going to move quickly to extend him so that it doesn’t get to that point, as Schefter reports they “plan to re-sign him soon anyway.” Assuming they agree to an extension before free agency opens, it’ll be very interesting to see what that deal looks like. The reporting all offseason has indicated that the team views Hill as Drew Brees‘ eventual successor, and this move further confirms that.
The former gadget player has taken on an increasingly large role on offense, and that figures to only get larger in 2020. Hill threw only 14 passes last season, but Payton seems to have all the confidence in the world in him. In a separate tweet, Schefter notes that the first-round tender for quarterbacks is expected to be worth around $5MM in 2020, but that the team is confident they’ll have a deal done soon. Given how they’ve talked about him, he’ll likely blow past that number with any extension.
Who in their right mind would give up a 1st round pick for this guy?
A moron.
Sean Payton…
The Browns.
Good one!
Small minds think alike.
Lol I thought Jerry Jones was dumb on the Roy Williams trade, I wonder who falls victim to the Hill trade lol
Dallas since Jerry Jones thinks he’s smarter than everyone. He still thinks he can win a SB with him calling the shots. His ego is bigger than Texas!
Sean Payton thinks he’s smarter than everyone including Jerry Jones….
A late 1st round pick holder? Who could use a Swiss Army knife, and actually knows how to deploy this guy. He can run the ball and win games. He can throw it as a QB. He can catch passes. Special teams. You could do a lot worse for a first round pick! Happens all the time! Every year!
Congrats Taysom!
GLAD to see it ! Teddy is too Fragile !
Teddy came back from a terrible injury…surgery, rehab….did a great job filling in last year. The guy is damn tough! He is also a free agent and won’t be returning
Eventual successor?!? He’s almost 30. Can’t wait to see how his QB career develops.
Andrew says the first round tender is worth around 5 million. Can another team offer him more or is it a set price?
Thanks for answering Andrew. No wonder your site gets so few comments.
MLBTR RULES!!!!!
They can offer more, which the Saints can match, or not match and get the first rounder. The quoted price is the minimum a team would have to offer.
Won’t make sense to sign him unless your pick is 25+ in the 1st round, and even that seems high.
There is no way someone is going to give up a number 1 plus a nice pay day who couldn’t even find plays at QB when Brees was hurt.
This just guarantees they keep him for 5M. Too risky for any team to offer a deal.
I’m not a Saints fan but is Hill better than Bridgewater??
Rather have Bridgewater. To me he’s the heir apparent to Brees if they can work it out with him
I was convinced they would choose Bridgewater over Brees all season long. Oh, well. Unless New England loses Brady, I think Tampa Bay would be the best landing spot for Bridgewater.