The New Orleans Saints finished the 2018 regular season at 13-3, and secured the number one overall seed in the NFC. They have a lot of weapons on the team, which has made them one of the most prolific offenses in years — and back-up quarterback Taysom Hill has been a big part of all of that. Interestingly enough, former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has now revealed that the Saints actually wanted him in that very same role.
As many football fans know, Tim Tebow was an amazingly talented player coming out of college — and everyone expected him to be the next big thing. Then, Peyton Manning replaced him in Denver — before one sub-par season with the Jets, and a very short stint with the Eagles, lead to the end of his NFL career.
During this great run by the Saints, they have used Taysom Hill in a role that is very unlike that of a reserve quarterback. He has indeed lined up under center at times, and has acted as a standard quarterback — but he’s done just about everything else, too.
Hill has been a receiver, a running back, played coverage on kickoff returns, rushed the punter on punts, and operated out of the Wildcat formation. There are not a lot of players who can do the types of things that Hill does, but Tim Tebow was indeed one of those types of athletes — and the Saints apparently knew it.
Tim Tebow was last seen in the NFL as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, back in 2015. He played in the four preseason games, but did not make it to the regular season as a part of the roster. He has remained absent from the league since that time.
Many teams would have loved to use Tebow in a position other than quarterback, but he wanted to keep playing the position he knew so well. Unlike Hill, Tebow wasn’t willing to play tight end or to move around the field. He was focused on playing QB.
The things that Saints head coach Sean Payton has done with Hill are techniques and placements that he’s had in mind for a long time. Tebow recently spoke with the Times Picayune — and he said that Payton told him that the Saints would have done the same thing with him.
“…(I) talked to coach Payton a lot when he was trying to get me to come do that-ish, here.”
Tebow was speaking in reference to what the Saints are doing with Hill. Tebow said that, at the time, his heart simply wasn’t in moving away from being a quarterback. This was all around 2013 — after the Jets cut Tebow, when he was looking for a new NFL home.
Taysom Hill is doing a great job for the New Orleans Saints, and he has been a huge part of the offense this season. Head coach Sean Payton seems to know what he is doing — and it looks like he’s had these plans in his arsenal for quite some time. While it never ended up happening, the Who Dat Nation has to wonder what it would have been like to see Drew Brees and Tim Tebow on the same side of the field at the same time.