New Orleans Saints: Be prepared for a lot of Taysom Hill against the Bears
By Jason Reed
The New Orleans Saints have another test without Drew Brees in Week 7 in a road game against the Chicago Bears that is bound to be interesting.
The New Orleans Saints have yet another task at hand without Drew Brees under center as they are traveling to Chicago to take on one of the toughest home teams in the league, the Chicago Bears.
This is the third playoff team that the Saints have played with Teddy Bridgewater starting. With a road win in Seattle and a home defensive domination against Dallas, the Saints won both games. In fact, it has been relatively smooth sailing for New Orleans, as they are 4-0 in games that Bridgewater started.
This is the last real challenge for the Saints until Brees returns as they take on the Arizona Cardinals next week before heading into the bye. Nothing is guaranteed, but winning this game could lead to a 6-0 record without Brees starting.
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They have to get past Chicago first and it is not going to be easy and it definitely is not going to be pretty. Chicago is known for its stout defense and the Saints’ defense has formed a new identity, although it still has more to prove before being dubbed as elite.
However, it is not like the Bears are high-powered on offense and their quarterback situation is dire, regardless of it it is Mitchell Trubisky or Chase Daniel under center.
Bridgewater has been good thus far, but he is still a game manager and with Alvin Kamara potentially missing the game, it is going to be hard to get things going offensively.
That is why we are going to see a whole lot of Taysom Hill in this contest. The New Orleans Saints’ super-utility player has had a few plays here and there but has only taken 36 snaps in the last four games as opposed to the 36 snaps he took in the first two weeks.
The Saints are going to need all of the gadget-plays that they have and that is part of the reason why the offense was missing some juice last week: it did not want to show everything before having to play the Bears.
Whether he is running the ball, throwing the ball or catching the ball, Sean Payton should be turning to Taysom Hill more than normal in this game to confuse the Bears defense and solve that Rubix Cube.
There are going to be a few big third and six situations where they need to happen and having Hill on the field in those situations is going to be a world of help. Just Bridgewater alone, especially with no Kamara, is going to struggle to get it done in those situations.
Not only will we see Hill a lot in this game but I genuinely believe it is going to be the Taysom Hill game. It will be the best game of his career and be the perfect reminder for anyone that has forgotten about him in recent weeks.