Freethinker
Hall of Famer
I agree for the reasons you explained.I don't want to sound like a a-hole but giving Sean Payton credit for starting Taysom for 4 games is a little cucked IMO. Payton should have started him last year when Brees went down instead of Bridgewater. Winston, with his 28-45 career record leading the league in fumbles one year in only 13 games and interceptions with 30 last year shouldn't be a thought. Payton has never come out and declared Hill the aire apparent and seems to be running away from that in his most recent interviews by implying that Winston could be the starter next year. Brees was admittedly not fully recovered and hadn't had a full week of practice yet Payton started a rusty not fully recovered Brees instead of doing what coaches should do and tell him to take an extra week. The result was they lost a game where the opposing team punted 8 times and lost a fumble once deep in their own territory. Brees had three tds, a screen pass, a shovel pass, and a good ten yard pass. He was 15-34 with an int and couple more balls that should have been intercepted. It was a bad coaching decision to start Brees in that kind of shape. Based on Payton's words in his most recent interviews, if Brees should go down again I fully expect Winston to be declared the starting QB. In fact, Covid may have gotten in the way of him playing this game after Bree's awful start.
As for Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers getting credit and being mobile dual threat athletic qbs, they don't compare to Taysom Hill. Josh Allen has been the media's whipping boy for 2 years and still gets criticism and has media detractors (Nick Wright) despite what I think should be an MVP season. He has superior athleticism and can be a dual threat anytime he wants. As for Aaron Rodger, he has nifty feet but his athleticism is no where close to Allen's and way far away from Hill's. It's not comparable. Aaron is not looked at as a dual threat QB in any way.
As for Hill being 30, who cares if you're 30 and still run a 4.4?d Age is only a concern if it affects your physical skills. Is the big fear that he may slow down in a few years to a 4.6? And it's not as if 30 is ancient number for a QB to be starting - Steve Young didn't start for the 49ers until after 30 and same goes for Kurt Warner - neither of whom were the athletic specimen that Hill is.
I'd like to be a Bree's fan but he's wearing "say her name" shirts. Unless this is being forced on him, which it may be, then I find myself not quite rooting for him so hard.
To me, Hill is in the rare Tim Tebow or Johnny Manziel mold. A quarterback who plays the style that only blacks are allowed, which is having designed runs and the attitude to take off running as often as they like. Manziel self destructed, but even before he did, he was being forced into being a pocket passer. Tebow had a short run with Denver where he had some success but they never gave him the creative dual threat playbook he had in college. Then they turned him into a WSTD like they did to Hill. IMO, Hill is overall more talented than Tebow and Payton is slightly more fair of a coach so he’s forced himself into an opportunity. The true test is if Brees retires. Will Payton have the balls to name Hill the starter or will he “Tebow” him?