Sean Payton Said New Orleans Saints Think Taysom Hill Will ‘Be An Outstanding NFL Quarterback’

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – New Orleans head coach Sean Payton said that the Saints believe former BYU QB Taysom Hill will “be an outstanding NFL quarterback.”

Payton discussed Hill’s future during a recent interview with NFL reporter and radio host Jason LaCanfora on 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore, Maryland.

“We think he’s going to be an outstanding NFL quarterback,” Payton said. “He’s a very good athlete but I think that’s a normal reaction for any fan relative to someone that is getting ready to play that position and they haven’t had the same amount of snaps to look at.”

Earlier this offseason, Payton declared Hill as the Saints’ second-string quarterback for the 2020 season. After spending the past three seasons deeper on New Orleans’ depth chart, the head coach said the former BYU signal-caller “earned that opportunity” to be Drew Brees’ primary backup despite his limited reps throwing the ball.

During his NFL career, Hill has completed 6 of 13 pass attempts for 119 yards and an interception.

“For those that aren’t sold, it’s probably because they haven’t seen enough of him in games and I can certainly understand that,” Payton told LaCanfora. “Now, that being said, we’ve seen hundreds of reps that weren’t necessarily regular-season games and we’ve seen some of the things we feel he can do on a consistent basis. That’s often the case with any new player, new meaning that time comes where Taysom is transitioning into quarterback-only, people are excited or anxious to see, hey, how does this guy function down-in and down-out at that position?”

That's our [BACKUP] quarterback 😱

…and UNDRAFTED ALL-PRO Punt Returner ‼️ pic.twitter.com/SQ74F0IgWp

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 5, 2020

In late April, New Orleans showed further commitment to Hill by signing him to a two-year $21 million contract. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that $16 million of Hill’s new contract was guaranteed money.