Have the Saints figured out their Taysom Hill usage problem? 'There's a fine line.'

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) runs for a 75-yard touch down against the Cleveland Browns during the second half in New Orleans on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. The New Orleans Saints defeated the Cleveland Browns 35-14.

(Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune) Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Here’s a shocker: In an ideal world, the way the New Orleans Saints would like to continue using Taysom Hill the way they used him against the Cleveland Browns. No kidding. Wonder why that would be? The last time he took the field, Hill enjoyed the finest performance of his professional career, rushing for 138 yards and three touchdowns and added 50 yards on eight receptions (plus 18 passing yards and 42 kick return yards, for good measure).



So, obviously, the Saints would like something like that to happen again Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, who are coming off a performance in which they allowed Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to rush for 255 yards and two scores. Barkley’s performance was the best in the NFL this season, according to Next Gen Stats. He recorded +13.

9 Expected Points Added (EPA) on rushing plays against the Rams, the highest single-game total by any player this season. It edged out the previous high point: Hill’s +12.9 EPA on rushing plays against the Browns.

Hill’s 15 touches against the Browns matched his career high. Now in his eighth season, he has only 16 career games with 10 or more touches — the sum total of rushes and receptions. When Hill has hit that 10-touch benchmark, the Saints have gone 14-2.

So that’s the ideal. But will the Saints continue to feed Hill? That remains to be determined. Usage has always been an interesting question for Hill.

“The more he’s on the field, the more effective we’ve been,” interim head coach Darren Rizzi said. “..

. There’s a fine line between getting him too much and not enough, so we’ve got to do a good job of managing that.” One, Hill has a huge mental load on his plate every week.

For the guy who plays every offensive position except for offensive line, it’s not enough to understand the gameplan — he needs to understand the game plan for five or six positions, in addition to special teams. Then there’s the durability question. At 34 years old, Hill has missed several games this season because of rib and lung injuries.

“I understand trying to find a balance of making sure that you’re available and all of that, but we also need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to win football games,” Hill said after the Browns game. “I don’t know exactly what that’s going to continue to look like, but I’m certainly enjoying the more opportunities I get.” Since he took over as interim coach, Rizzi has enjoyed the way offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has dialed in Hill’s usage.

For Rizzi, it’s not necessarily a hard rule about the number of touches; it’s more about the positional variation. “I think our usage with him these last couple weeks is really what we’re trying to trend toward — a little bit of everything, not too much of anything,” Rizzi said. Kubiak, though, said he doesn’t see any reason to truly limit Hill’s workload.

He said it’s been a strange year for Hill because of the injuries, but when he’s been available, Kubiak said he wants to use him “to the max.” “Absolutely not,” Kubiak said when asked if there are any reservations about over-using Hill. “Ready for Taysom to play every play of the game.

”.