Saints could tempt Sean Payton to make a mistake with catered trade bait

No matter how you do the math, the dollars don't make sense to keep Taysom Hill around with the New Orleans Saints for very long. He carries the second-highest cap hit on the team at $15.789 million for 2024. He is entering his age-34 season out of BYU, and the gadget player extraordinaire is still under contract for the next two seasons. Who on god's green earth would want to trade for him?

I know a guy ... Yes, Sean Payton would love to reunite with Hill on his horrifically bad Denver Broncos. They are carrying so much dead money after cutting ties with Russell Wilson. At this time, the two quarterbacks Payton has of note on his roster are Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci. Is Hill better than them? The fact I had to pause for a second suggests that yes, even the Broncos can use his skill set.

If the Saints were to wait until after June 1 to deal Hill, his dead cap is essentially cut in third. It would go from a whopping $18.406 million for 2024 to only $7.289 million. If the Saints do what they do best, and kick more deferred money down the can, they can save about $10 million for 2024 if they were to cut or even trade Hill. It was a terrible deal when it was given out, but Hill might help Denver.

To me, this is all about waiting for the Saints to give up on him, rather than give up a draft pick for him.

Sean Payton could be tempted to trade for Taysom Hill in deal with Saints

The mistake that Payton and the Broncos as a whole could be making if they were to trade for Hill is multi-faceted. First, nobody else in the league could have this much fascination about the guy. Clearly, New Orleans knows that nobody else in the league would view Hill as much of an asset as Denver would. Thus, they could have them over the barrel and get way more for Hill than expected.

Second, how sure are we that Hill makes the Broncos a better team? Yes, he sort of starred collegiately at relatively nearby BYU in Provo, Utah, but we have kind of been there, done that with Hill. Nobody has been given more chances to kind of sort of play quarterback in the NFL than him. Then again, he might be better than what the Broncos have now, which presents the biggest problem of all.

Let's say Hill were to somehow beat out Stidham and DiNucci for the job. One would think Denver would draft a quarterback in the first round, but can we definitively say that the Broncos are obsessed with Bo Nix? And even if Nix or whoever was to be the guy, Hill would be taking precious snaps from him at the quarterback position. All the while, Payton might be able to convince himself he is so right.

Ultimately, there are only two things Broncos Country should root for this season. One, for it to be over as soon as it started. And two, if one is not possible, then embrace the chaos and absolute clown show that is certain to ensue. At this point, just let Mark Schlereth run the team in a Bill Belichick dual-role of sorts. He would have a better idea of how to make this team matter again.

Hill to the Broncos may more the needle, but it won't register any more wins for the Broncos franchise.