Saints switch Taysom Hill's designation from tight end to quarterback
Technically, the Saints now have four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster.
As noted by Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football, the team shifted the designation of Taysom Hill from tight end to quarterback. He had been listed as a tight end for all of camp.
The move opens the door to the Saints potentially using Hill as QB2, with a third quarterback added to the gameday roster under the new emergency quarterback rule.
Under that approach, Derek Carr would serve as QB1, Hill would fill the role of QB2, and Jameis Winston or rookie fourth-rounder Jake Haener would be the emergency third quarterback. The third quarterback could play only if both Carr and Hill were both unavailable due to injury or ejection.
If that's what the Saints do, it's a creative application of the rule. The second quarterback can play at will and line up at other positions like tight end; only the emergency third quarterback is restricted to operating under center.
Other teams might gripe about this, because that's what teams tend to do when an opponent identifies a legitimate loophole. The easy response is this — go get yourself a Taysom Hill, and make him your QB2.
The only downside to this approach is that it forces the Saints to use Hill as the second-string quarterback, in the event Carr is injured.
The upside is that it allows the Saints to dress an extra player, since they won't be devoting three regular spots to Carr, Hill, and Winston or Haener. Winston or Haener would count as an extra man, under the new emergecy quarterback rule.
