SmashMouth

Drew Brees, Taysom Hill, Teddy Bridgewater: It’s not that complicated

What it boils down to:

• I think it’s more likely than not that Brees returns, eschewing TV for one year.

• I think Hill, barring an unlikely restricted-free-agency offer of good money and a likely starting job, will remain a Saint in 2020.

• I think Bridgewater is most likely (but not certainly) gone, because he knows the Saints want to give Hill the chance to be Brees’ heir.



BREES

Like his friend and quasi-mentoree from San Diego, Philip Rivers, Brees knows he’ll have 20 years to do football on TV if he wants (or to do politics, or to be anything other than a quarterback), and only one or two to be a quarterback at a high level with a legitimate chance to win a Super Bowl. He and Payton are such a good fit that they complete each other’s sentences. That’s literally true; I saw it in a Saturday night QB meeting in New Orleans in 2018. Even if he walks into the ESPN Monday night booth, or some booth for some network, at something like $7 million per year, that’s a quarter or a fifth of what he’d make taking one shot at a Super Bowl—and he knows the Saints are close. Plus, chances are there will be another big network job there for him in ’21 or ’22, when his body is telling him, “Enough.”

HILL

I think Hill will have the chance to return in 2020 even if Brees retires. I think the Saints would probably give him the shot to win the starting job—and wouldn’t want to pay Bridgewater to keep from the open market and a starting job somewhere else. Payton was honest last week in this column, telling me he thinks it’s likely Hill will get an offer sheet in free-agency. I’m not so sure, but whatever the offer is, Hill already feels the love from one of the most imagination play-designers and callers in this century, Payton. So, somehow, the Saints will make it worth Hill’s while to stay for one more year, and let him know he’s next in line when Brees leaves.

Assuming Hill is going to be a good to very good NFL starter when Brees leaves is a gigantic leap of faith and could be way wrong. But the other day I put on the Chargers-Saints preseason game from last August on NFL GamePass and saw Hill, in 32 minutes, complete 11-of-15 and lead the Saints back from a 17-3 deficit to win. It’s preseason, and who cares. But before you say Hill can’t play, or before you say Hill is a fools-gold Tebow II, watch some of the plays Hill made. “Taysom Hill, I take my hat off to him,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said that day. “He’s a heck of a player.” Moreover, Payton thinks Hill can do it. He’s seen him every day for almost three years. Wouldn’t he know better than those on the outside?

And stop this nonsense about how Hill’s too old, and who wants to start a rebuild behind a 30-year-old quarterback. (He turns 30 Aug. 23.) He’s played 1,125 snaps in three NFL seasons, 62 percent on special teams. He’s 30 because of a two-year Mormon mission, a fifth college season at BYU, and three NFL seasons in the shadows. He’s not going to fail because he’ll be 30 or 31 when his starting career begins. He’ll fail, if he does, because he’s not good enough.

Hill succeeding is no sure thing. But too many people are too quick to dismiss him. I’m not.

BRIDGEWATER

I just can’t see the Saints laying out big money to sign Bridgewater, even if Brees walks. That would be choosing Bridgewater long-term over Hill, which might be smart. But I just don’t see the Saints, in the event Brees retires, paying Bridgewater to be the man for the next three or four years, thus forcing Hill to take almost any offer in restricted free-agency. And so . . .

Teddy Bridgewater: Tampa Bay makes sense

I can hear it now: Bridgewater doesn’t have the deep arm Bruce Arians needs. I would dispute that. When Arians put Carson Palmer in the pilot’s chair in Arizona, his previous NFL yards per attempt in Cincinnati and Oakland was 7.2. Bridgewater’s career NFL yards per attempt: 7.2.

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