It's never too soon to start preparing for your fantasy draft.
While Connor Payton, son of Saints Coach Sean Payton, was merely joking about his dad's draft board, the news that will impact fantasy leagues is no joke.
Saints quarterback Taysom Hill, who has been listed as quarterback for all three of his seasons with New Orleans, is now eligible at the tight end/flex position in ESPN fantasy leagues. "Good Morning Football" host Kay Adams went on the show's "Weekend Soap Box" segment in early November to air her frustrations about Hill only being allowed at the quarterback position in fantasy.
While future Hall of Famer Drew Brees is set as the starting quarterback for another season, he did suffer a thumb injury in Week 2 of the 2019 season against the Rams. Teddy Bridgewater stepped in for the five weeks, leaving more time for Hill to sit on the fantasy sideline while he was only allowed to be played at the quarterback position.
It's no secret to NFL fans that Hill has been used at several positions with the Saints. Quarterback, receiver, tight end, running back, special teams gunner, the list goes on.
Hill completed six of seven passes in 2019, including playoffs. While the Saints and Payton have made it clear they'd like his main position to be quarterback, this left fantasy owners frustrated. Anyone with Hill on their team scored a total of 83.3 fantasy points in 2019, which only took into account Hill's passing and rushing stats. For comparison, Saints tight end Jared Cook caught 43 passes and nine touchdowns for New Orleans last season, his fantasy points for the year amounted to 124.5. Hill had 19 receptions for 234 yards and six touchdowns, none of which was taken into account for fantasy points.
When Adams took the soap box stand for Hill to be listed at the flex position, she was making a good argument. In her most recent appearance on the New Orleans Saints podcast, Adams revealed she had done what she could to fight her battle, "I took this to NFL Fantasy, I took it as far as I could take it and they said the team has to have him listed not at the quarterback," Adams suggested making the appeal to Coach Sean Payton.
Less than 24 hours later, ESPN analyst and fantasy-football writer Mike Clay revealed on Twitter that this season Hill has been granted TE/Flex eligibility, though for the time being he will no longer be eligible at quarterback, ESPN fantasy reserves the right to strip the TE/Flex option if Hill takes over as starter in 2020.
Fantasy owners might need to take a page from the Payton draft room and start preparing for their draft. Taysom is coming.
