The Saints made a notable change on their roster yesterday. Taysom Hill is no longer a tight end. He’s been listed that way for the last three years, but they’re calling him a quarterback now.
This shouldn’t change much what happens on the field. He’s now going to be the backup behind Spencer Rattler (with Tyler Shough bumped down to the No. 3 spot), but Hill will be doing his usual change-of-pace things, catching a few balls, throwing a few gadget passes and coming in for a bunch of short-yardage and goal-line running plays. I would guess that if the Saints score 10 rushing touchdowns the rest of the way, Hill will score 3-4 of them.
But a different position changes the way Hill is categorized in fantasy leagues. He was a tight end, now he’s a quarterback.
How this plays out varies from league to league. In typical nationally run games and services, they (the operators of the business) don’t like to mess with positions during the season. That potentially could create hundreds of emails. So their policy is to decide on positions during the spring, and what the player is at that time, he remains there for the year. Hill was a tight end in April, and he’s locked in as a tight end for the duration.
That’s not necessarily the right approach, but it’s the cleanest, easiest approach. I talked to operators of a couple of national sites about this issue at a national convention a few years ago.
In our league, we defer to the NFL teams. That is, the listing by the team trumps all when determining where a player is eligible. When a team makes a switch during the season, the player’s eligibility also switches in our league. Yesterday, the Donner Pass Carnivores had Hill as a tight end. Today they have him as a quarterback (at least until they release him later in the day, I imagine).
It was fun while it lasted. Hill carried the designation of “tight end” for the past three years, scoring 21 touchdowns in his last 41 games.
Over the past three years, 10 tight ends have started at least half the time and averaged at least 10 points per game using PPR scoring. In the PPR format, 10 points is roughly what you’re looking for to finish with top-10 production in any given week. Hill hit that 10-point threshold in 18 of his 41 games as a tight end.
In the chart below, Hill’s top-10 efforts are in bold. He would grade out slightly more favorably in standard scoring, and dramatically better in TD-only. (In 2022-24 seasons, only two tight ends scored more touchdowns than Hill.)
| TAYSOM HILL AS A TIGHT END | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opponent | Result | Rushing | Receiving | Passing | PPR |
| 2022 | at Atl. | W, 27-26 | 4-81-1 | 1-2-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 15.3 |
| 2022 | T.B. | L, 10-20 | 3-14-0 | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 1.4 |
| 2022 | Min. | L, 25-28 | 5-21-1 | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 8.1 |
| 2022 | Sea. | W, 39-32 | 9-112-3 | 0-0-0 | 1-1-22-1 | 34.3 |
| 2022 | Cin. | L, 26-30 | 5-39-0 | 0-0-0 | 2-4-16-0 | 4.7 |
| 2022 | at Ari. | L, 34-42 | 3-9-0 | 1-3-1 | 2-2-48-0 | 10.6 |
| 2022 | L.V. | W, 24-0 | 10-61-0 | 1-11-0 | 1-1-2-0 | 8.3 |
| 2022 | Balt. | L, 13-27 | 1-6-0 | 0-0-0 | 1-1-13-0 | 1.3 |
| 2022 | at Pitt. | L, 10-20 | 3-1-0 | 0-0-0 | 0-1-0-0 | .1 |
| 2022 | LAR | W, 27-20 | 9-52-0 | 1-8-0 | 1-3-14-0 | 7.7 |
| 2022 | at S.F. | L, 0-13 | 6-13-0 | 1-7-0 | 0-1-0-0 | 3.0 |
| 2022 | at T.B. | L, 16-17 | 3-10-0 | 2-35-1 | 1-1-21-0 | 13.6 |
| 2022 | Atl. | W, 21-18 | 7-30-0 | 0-0-0 | 2-2-80-1 | 11.0 |
| 2022 | at Cle. | W, 17-10 | 9-56-1 | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 11.6 |
| 2022 | at Phil. | W, 20-10 | 14-46-1 | 1-10-0 | 2-2-24-0 | 13.8 |
| 2022 | Car. | L, 7-10 | 5-24-0 | 1-1-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | Ten. | W, 16-15 | 3-4-0 | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 | .4 |
| 2023 | at Car. | W, 20-17 | 9-75-0 | 1-(-1)-0 | 1-1-8-0 | 8.8 |
| 2023 | at G.B. | L, 17-18 | 4-12-0 | 1-9-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 3.1 |
| 2023 | T.B. | L, 9-26 | 4-10-0 | 1-7-0 | 1-1-13-0 | 3.4 |
| 2023 | at N.E. | W, 34-0 | 3-19-0 | 1-1-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 3.0 |
| 2023 | at Hou. | L, 13-20 | 1-2-0 | 7-49-0 | 1-1-4-0 | 12.3 |
| 2023 | Jac. | L, 24-31 | 5-18-1 | 4-50-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 16.8 |
| 2023 | at Ind. | W, 38-27 | 9-63-2 | 1-14-0 | 1-2-44-0 | 22.9 |
| 2023 | Chi. | W, 24-17 | 11-52-0 | 4-13-1 | 1-1-3-1 | 20.7 |
| 2023 | at Min. | L, 19-27 | 1-6-0 | 2-17-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | at Atl. | L, 15-24 | 7-26-0 | 2-55-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 10.1 |
| 2023 | Det. | L, 28-33 | 13-59-1 | 2-15-0 | 0-2-0-0 | 15.4 |
| 2023 | NYG | W, 24-6 | 1-1-0 | 1-4-0 | 0-1-0-0 | 1.5 |
| 2023 | at LAR | L, 22-30 | 2-2-0 | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 | .2 |
| 2023 | at T.B. | W, 23-13 | 2-1-0 | 2-30-1 | 1-2-11-0 | 11.7 |
| 2023 | Atl. | W, 48-17 | 6-51-0 | 4-28-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 11.9 |
| 2024 | Car. | W, 47-10 | 5-35-0 | 1-1-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 4.6 |
| 2024 | at Dall. | W, 44-19 | 3-18-0 | 1-1-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 2.9 |
| 2024 | at Atl. | L, 24-26 | 6-24-2 | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 14.4 |
| 2024 | at LAC | L, 8-26 | 4-20-0 | 2-21-0 | 1-1-3-0 | 6.3 |
| 2024 | at Car. | L, 22-23 | 5-19-1 | 4-41-0 | 0-1-0-0 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | Atl. | W, 20-17 | 4-14-0 | 2-36-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 7.0 |
| 2024 | Cle. | W, 35-14 | 7-138-3 | 8-50-0 | 1-2-18-0 | 45.7 |
| 2024 | LAR | L, 14-21 | 5-10-0 | 5-37-0 | 0-0-0-0 | 9.7 |
| 2025 | NYG | W, 26-14 | 6-(-1)-0 | 0-0-0 | 1-1-19-0 | .9 |
In the products that we publish, we will continue to list Hill as a tight end. While he’s not a tight end, I’m guessing that in most fantasy leagues, he’s eligible there, and I believe there will be some people interested to know where he’ll rank. (And I don’t think anybody is interested in seeing where Hill ranks among quarterbacks.)
In leagues where Hill is tight end eligible, I suppose there would be some sense in stashing him on the end of a bench. If he winds up starting a few games at quarterback, that would be intriguing. (But in the event of a Rattler injury, I would guess they’d probably want to see what they have in Shough.)
—Ian Allan