Saints: 3 available quarterbacks better than Taysom Hill

As the New Orleans Saints move into the future without Drew Brees, these three available quarterbacks would be better than Taysom Hill.

It’s only a matter of when he makes his retirement official at this point, but the New Orleans Saints will have a new starting quarterback for the first time since Drew Brees took over in 2006 next season. He has already done them a favor, restructuring his contract to reduce his 2021 cap hit and free up close to $24 million in cap space.

The Saints still have lot of work to do get to the lower salary cap, which will make it difficult to replace Brees in a notable way. Head coach Sean Payton is a big believer in Taysom Hill, and when Brees missed time this past season Hill made four starts under center. After a limited sample of work as a passer before that, that chunk of games at least allowed the Saints to get a longer look.

The Saints went 3-1 in Hill’s four starts. He completed more than 72 percent of his passes in three of those games, with a total passer rating of 96.9. Of course he also ran plenty, totaling 209 yards and four touchdowns on 39 carries in those outings.

The bar for being better than Hill is still low though, and the Saints can’t really view him as a franchise quarterback.

3 available quarterback targets for Saints who are better than Taysom Hill

3. Ryan Fitzpatrick

This is mostly a fun one. But even as a one-year bridge to someone else, Fitzpatrick could definitely succeed in Payton’s offense with Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara as the primary weapons. He still has plenty left in the tank, along with an intangible quality that definitely has value.

Most importantly though, Fitzpatrick will come cheap. If some other avenues don’t yield anything, he’s a better pure quarterback than Hill.