Taysom Hill Remains Unsigned; No Broncos Reunion With Sean Payton
The short version
- Taysom Hill's Saints contract expired after last season; the team did not re-sign him.
- He has not retired, but he has not signed with the Broncos or any other NFL club.
- Hill, 36, played all nine of his NFL seasons in New Orleans.
- Career totals: 2,551 rushing yards and 34 TDs, 1,034 receiving yards and 11 TDs, 2,426 passing yards and 12 TDs on 63.3% passing.
- No other NFL player has ever posted those three career totals.
The 36-year-old left the Saints in free agency and has not signed anywhere, despite talk of a Denver reunion with his former coach Sean Payton.
Taysom Hill's long run in New Orleans is over. His contract with the Saints ran out at the conclusion of last season, and the club did not bring him back during this year's free agency period, leaving the veteran without a team.
Once his availability became known, a popular idea took hold among NFL followers: join the Denver Broncos. The move would have paired him once more with Sean Payton, the head coach who turned him into a widely recognized figure. Denver is scheduled for a Week 3 appearance on Sunday Night Football, a prominent setting that would have showcased such a pairing had it come together.
That scenario never developed. Hill is not on Denver's roster, and he has not agreed to a deal with any other club. Nor has he announced his retirement, which leaves his standing in the sport straightforward: an unsigned free agent.
A concrete explanation for Denver's lack of interest has not surfaced. The difficulty, as the situation is commonly framed, is that acquiring Hill would likely require a willingness to install entire offensive packages built around his particular abilities, keeping opposing defenses uncertain about what is coming when he enters the huddle. He is a true wildcard, a player who can be deployed in several different ways.
That flexibility works in his favor only for a team confident he is still near his peak and fully sold on his value. At the moment, no club appears to meet that standard, including the one now led by his former head coach. Hill is 36, an age where returns can shrink, and any suitor must weigh whether the extra schematic work required to feature him justifies the cost. Payton would be the most plausible coach to attempt it, but so far he has not.
Hill's career timeline carries an unusual wrinkle. Although he has appeared in just nine NFL seasons, a Mormon mission pushed his football calendar back, which is how he arrives at this juncture at 36 with questions about whether he has slipped physically from his best.
His production across those nine campaigns, all spent in a Saints uniform, has no precedent. He gained 2,551 yards and scored 34 touchdowns on 489 carries, added 110 receptions for 1,034 yards and 11 scores, and connected on 195 of 308 throws — a 63.3 percent completion rate — for 2,426 yards and 12 touchdowns. No other player in league history has reached all three of those career totals, a combination that may never be equaled.
Building on those numbers now depends on Hill finding a new employer. Until a contract materializes, he sits on the open market, outside the NFL's active picture and not lined up alongside Payton for any farewell chapter.
