Will a healthy Taysom Hill return as the starting quarterback for the struggling New Orleans Saints?

Taysom Hill has delighted BYU fans from the time he began his tenure in Provo in 2012 up until the present day with his NFL heroics.

The 35-year-old veteran returned to practice for the New Orleans Saints this week for the first time since tearing his ACL last December. And with his return comes some juicy speculations about what his role might be once he actually returns to the field. There is at least some postulating that he could see more time at quarterback this year than he has in the recent past.

The first bread crumb is that Taysom's is officially listed as a quarterback on the Saints team roster, not tight end or some other hybrid role.

Then come tidbits like this from ESPN's Saints reporter Katherine Terrell:

The phrase that Taysom "spent a lot of time this offseason in the QB room" is intriguing. After getting plenty of reps as a traditional quarterback in 2020 and 2021, the BYU legend has only attempted 34 passes over the last three seasons. It looked like the team had moved him full-time to a tight end-half back hybrid, so dedicating more time with the quarterbacks during his recovery is interesting.

Now consider this incredible stat from John Sigler, managing editor and lead writer at The Saints Wire:

If you're wondering who makes up the rest of the Saints quarterback room, it's second-year player Spencer Rattler who is 0-10 as a starting quarterback for New Orleans. Rookie Tyler Shough is on the active roster and has attempted just two passes this year. Veteran Jake Haener is on the practice squad and is 0-1 as a starting NFL quarterback.

It looks like Sigler counted Saints quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien and his brief, winless stint as a quarterback from his playing days to get to his final number of 0-16-1.

Now consider New Orleans hired a new coach this year in Kellen Moore for his first NFL head coaching gig. While the Saints are 0-4 this year, they play in the "meh" NFC South and could be right back in contention in the division with a couple of wins. No rookie head coach wants to tank right out of the gate and go something like 2-15 to begin his coaching legacy, so Moore may have some incentive to win now. Moore is known as an innovative offensive mind, so could he be considering giving Taysom more reps at quarterback in an attempt to actually win some games?

And lest we forget, Taysom Hill has been a good quarterback when given the opportunity for the Saints. On his career he has completed 193-of-302 passes - a solid 63.9% - with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. As stated in Sigler's post on X above, Hill's quarterback record is seven wins and two losses.

From a a strategy standpoint, putting Taysom under center is a massive plus for the Saints. He is a true dual-threat quarterback and opposing defenses have to scheme, prepare, and react to his elite running ability. Those preparations take time. The different on-field assignments accounting for a mobile quarterback put defensive players in uncomfortable positions. If defensive players commit to Taysom running, it gives him one less defender to account for in pass coverage. And if they drop into coverage, Hill can tuck the ball and run. Why wouldn't the Saints at least want to try that?

For now, Taysom playing quarterback for the Saints is just speculation.

But it's also beautiful speculation for those of us who are Taysom Hill fans.

At 35 years old his body is going to break down sooner than later if he keeps playing his current hybrid role and repeatedly smashing himself into loaded defensive boxes on third-and-2.

But if Taysom could remake himself into a mobile pocket quarterback, it could extend his career by years. It's not uncommon for quarterbacks in today's NFL to play well into their late thirties, and I hope that's the direction we're headed with BYU legend Taysom Hill.

Steelers Safety DeShon Elliott Absolutely Goes Off On NFL After Recent Fine: "Count Your F**** Days"

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a great game overall in Week 4 against the 

Minnesota Vikings. Aside from the final handful of minutes, Pittsburgh thoroughly outcoached and outplayed its opponent in all facets of the game. The first ever regular season game in Dublin, Ireland was a huge success. Croke Park was electric as ownership

 saw its dreams come true in real time. It was a massive success for the NFL too, and it's safe to say that there will be more games played there in the years to come. 

Despite this great moment in NFL history, the league has proven to still be sticklers about certain parts of the rules. On his Instagram account, safety DeShon Elliott

 posted a picture of a fine he received from the league offices to his story, as he apparently had a towel that did not fit within what was allowed in the rules. He also added a very threatening caption onto that letter before calling for change.

"Count your f**** days," Elliott said. "Y'all worried about the wrong things. Let's fix things that actually mean something. @NFL @NFLPA."

The fine came from Elliott having an "unapproved black towel" on the field during the game in Dublin, as opposed to a standard white one. The fine is just for $5,797, which is an oddly specific number, like most fines the NFL hands out. Either way, he is clearly upset about the enforcement of that type of rule, and he made sure viewers knew about it. 

The rule does make sense in theory. With a black towel, it's much easier to hide foreign substances, as opposed to a league-mandated plain white towel. Elliott has never been known to be a cheater in any way, but it's better for the league to be safe than sorry in that regard. The star safety still wants to see some change, which is why he tagged the NFL, as well as the NFL Players Association in his story.

Elliott has always been one to tell things as he sees them, which has sometimes gotten him in trouble. Him telling the NFL to "count your days" could result in another fine being tacked on as well, as that could easily be taken as a threat. The bye week is meant to be a time to get healthy, recover mentally, and get right for the rest of the season. The starting safety seems to not be taking the time off as well as he could.

Steelers Have Had Worse Equipment Fines Over The Years

The Steelers are no strangers to the NFL fining them for equipment violations, and with a lot less reasoning than with Elliott and his towel. For example, defensive tackle 

Cameron Heyward has repeatedly been fined because his eye black said "Iron Head" on it, which was meant to honor his late father. That should definitely be allowed, and the NFL putting up punitive fines for that is definitely questionable.

Running back DeAngelo Williams has also been fined for an eye black message. His read "Find the Cure" to honor his late mother, who passed due to breast cancer. That same week

, William Gay was fined for wearing purple cleats to raise awareness for domestic violence. All these fines like this really don't take much out of a player's bank account; it's just sometimes unreasonable to have these guidelines in place.

Elliott is next in line to receive a fine for an equipment issue that most people never even noticed until he posted about it on Instagram. Now, there will be a microscope on him specifically to see what color his towel is as it hangs out of his pants for the rest of the season. He may be counting his own days until another fine pops up in his locker.

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