Taysom Hill has been taking first-team reps with the Saints. If he’s starting on Thursday night, I’m interested.
Hill isn’t a great passer, of course, but he’s a Jalen Hurts type quarterback. He’ll do a lot with his legs. And with how fantasy football tends to be scored, I think that make him a contender for top-10 quarterbacking numbers in a lot of weeks.
Not that he’s a top-10 quarterback, but his numbers should be a better than a whole bunch of players who are better real-life quarterbacks.
Hill in his four games last year averaged 209 passing yards, with 4 TDs. Those are, of course, lesser numbers. But Hill also averaged 52 rushing yards, with another 4 TDs, in those games. Plug those numbers together and he was a top-10 quarterback on a per-game basis.
Below see the stats for Hill from 2020, as they compare with the 31 quarterbacks who started at least half of last year. These are using 6 points for touchdowns, 4 for TD passes, 1 for every 20 passing yards and 1 for every 10 rushing yards. (They also include 2-point conversions, but I left those out to make the chart more readable.)
He’s a gamble, of course. Could blow up on the launch pad. But if your usual quarterback has a tough matchup, it would make sense to consider plugging in Hill as a replacement.
| QUARTERBACKS: POINTS PER START (2020) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Pass | TDP | Run | TDR | Pts |
| Josh Allen, Buff. | 16 | 284 | 2.31 | 26 | .56 | 29.5 |
| Patrick Mahomes, K.C. | 15 | 316 | 2.53 | 21 | .13 | 29.2 |
| Kyler Murray, Ariz. | 16 | 248 | 1.63 | 51 | .69 | 28.2 |
| Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 16 | 269 | 3.00 | 9 | .19 | 27.5 |
| Deshaun Watson, Hou. | 16 | 301 | 2.06 | 28 | .19 | 27.3 |
| Russell Wilson, Sea. | 16 | 263 | 2.50 | 32 | .13 | 27.2 |
| Justin Herbert, LAC | 15 | 289 | 2.07 | 16 | .33 | 26.5 |
| Lamar Jackson, Balt. | 15 | 184 | 1.73 | 67 | .47 | 25.8 |
| Taysom Hill, N.O. | 4 | 209 | 1.00 | 52 | 1.00 | 25.7 |
| Tom Brady, T.B. | 16 | 290 | 2.50 | 0 | .19 | 25.6 |
| Ryan Tannehill, Ten. | 16 | 239 | 2.06 | 17 | .44 | 24.8 |
| Kirk Cousins, Min. | 16 | 267 | 2.19 | 10 | .06 | 24.1 |
| Gardner Minshew, Jac. | 8 | 260 | 1.88 | 16 | .13 | 23.1 |
| Matt Ryan, Atl. | 16 | 286 | 1.63 | 6 | .13 | 22.3 |
| Carson Wentz, Phil. | 12 | 218 | 1.33 | 23 | .42 | 21.9 |
| Joe Burrow, Cin. | 10 | 269 | 1.30 | 14 | .30 | 21.9 |
| Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt. | 15 | 254 | 2.20 | 1 | .00 | 21.8 |
| Derek Carr, L.V. | 16 | 256 | 1.69 | 9 | .19 | 21.7 |
| Mitchell Trubisky, Chi. | 9 | 228 | 1.78 | 21 | .11 | 21.6 |
| Drew Brees, N.O. | 12 | 245 | 2.00 | 0 | .17 | 21.2 |
| Jared Goff, LAR | 15 | 263 | 1.33 | 7 | .27 | 20.9 |
| Teddy Bridgewater, Car. | 15 | 249 | 1.00 | 19 | .33 | 20.4 |
| Cam Newton, N.E. | 15 | 177 | .53 | 39 | .87 | 20.3 |
| Matthew Stafford, Det. | 16 | 255 | 1.63 | 7 | .00 | 20.2 |
| Baker Mayfield, Cle. | 16 | 223 | 1.63 | 10 | .06 | 19.2 |
| Philip Rivers, Ind. | 16 | 261 | 1.50 | -1 | .00 | 19.1 |
| Drew Lock, Den. | 13 | 226 | 1.23 | 12 | .23 | 19.0 |
| Andy Dalton, Dall. | 9 | 229 | 1.56 | 13 | .00 | 18.9 |
| Nick Mullens, S.F. | 8 | 266 | 1.25 | 1 | .00 | 18.7 |
| Tua Tagovailoa, Mia. | 9 | 201 | 1.22 | 12 | .33 | 18.4 |
| Daniel Jones, NYG | 14 | 210 | .79 | 30 | .07 | 17.2 |
| Sam Darnold, NYJ | 12 | 184 | .75 | 18 | .17 | 15.2 |
—Ian Allan