Taysom Hill has not been awesome against the Atlanta Falcons Sunday, in his first career NFL start as a quarterback. Unfortunately, he has also not been horrendous, and so the settling of the matter of what the hell he actually is may have to wait for another day. But what he for sure is not, I think it is fair to say, is a master of the deep ball.
(Spare a moment of pity for the New Orleans Saints social media person who dressed up this "highlight" with an exclamation point and a little emoji. That's real humiliating stuff.)
Emmanuel Sanders has fielded 36 punts in his NFL career, but never before has he fielded one that came off the arm of his own quarterback, and I think it is commendable that he did not signal for a fair catch on this one. We knew that Sean Payton would rejigger the Saints offense to Hill's specific skillset, but no one, least of all the opposition, could've anticipated the deployment of an underthrow of at least 15 yards, to an open receiver on a deep route, on second down. Advanced tactics!
