Sean Payton Says the Broncos Will Consider Taysom Hill: A Reunion With Real Fantasy Consequences

Broncos head coach Sean Payton said in an interview with NFL Network that Denver will consider signing Taysom Hill, days after Hill confirmed he will not return to the Saints for 2026. Hill has not retired. Denver has more than $37 million in cap space, the deepest connection to him of any team in the league, and a tight end room that would give him a defined role rather than a novelty one.

This is the rare offseason story where the football logic and the fantasy logic point in slightly different directions, and both are worth working through before drafts.

The relationship is the whole story

Payton and Hill overlapped in New Orleans from 2017 through 2021, and Payton is the coach who built the usage pattern that made Hill a fantasy curiosity in the first place: a tight-end-eligible player who took direct snaps, ran designed quarterback runs, caught passes out of the slot, and occasionally started at quarterback outright. No other coach in the NFL has ever deployed him that way, and no other coach has demonstrated any interest in trying.

That is why Denver was always the logical landing spot the moment Hill's Saints tenure ended. It is also why the interest should be taken seriously rather than dismissed as offseason noise. Payton did not have to answer the question, and he chose to leave the door open.

Nine seasons in New Orleans ended without a formal retirement announcement, which is the operative detail. A player who intended to be done would have said so.

Where he would fit in Denver

The Broncos' tight end room is headed by Evan Engram and Adam Trautman, with a wide-open competition behind them for the final roster spots. Engram has been one of the standouts of Denver's camp, and offensive coordinator Davis Webb has been looking for ways to create matchups for him. Payton has publicly described Engram as a potential major asset in the offense.

That is not a room that needs another traditional tight end. It is a room that could absorb a package player, which is exactly what Hill is. A one-year deal at a modest number would not affect Denver's ability to make other moves, and the roster cost would be a fourth tight end spot rather than a starter's snap share.

The Broncos offense around him has been reshaped. Bo Nix returns at quarterback and has looked sharp in camp despite missing most of the offseason program. Jaylen Waddle was added at receiver. Marvin Mims has continued to produce explosive plays. This is not a unit desperate for a gadget, which caps how much Hill would actually be used.

Fantasy fallout

Start with the honest framing: Hill has never been a reliable weekly fantasy asset, and adding him to Denver would not make him one. His value has always been touchdown-dependent and matchup-specific, and he turns 36 this month. Anyone drafting him as a starting tight end is drafting a variance play.

The more relevant fantasy question is what a Hill signing would do to the players around him. The answer is: less than the headline suggests, with one exception.

Engram's projection would not move. Payton has been explicit about wanting to feature him, and Hill's usage historically has not come out of the primary receiving tight end's route tree. Trautman's blocking role is also insulated.

The exception is the goal line. Hill's fantasy relevance in New Orleans came overwhelmingly from short-yardage and red-zone carries, and those carries have to come from somewhere. In Denver, that means the running back room and, to a smaller degree, Nix's rushing touchdown equity. If Hill signs and Payton uses him the way he used him in New Orleans, the Broncos' lead back loses a handful of the highest-value touches on the schedule, and Nix's rushing-touchdown prop should be shaded down.

That is a real effect, and it is one the fantasy market will almost certainly ignore.

The Verdexed model take

Verdexed's projection engine handles this the way it handles any goal-line committee: by reallocating expected red-zone carries rather than adjusting raw yardage. The model's read on a Hill signing is that it costs Denver's primary back somewhere in the range of two to four rushing touchdowns across a full season, which is worth roughly a round of ADP at the running back position, and costs Nix a smaller but nonzero share of his own rushing scores.

For Hill himself, the model produces a projection that would rank him outside the top twenty tight ends on a per-game basis with an unusually wide distribution. He is a player whose weekly scoring is essentially bimodal: a two-point week or a fifteen-point week, with very little in between. That profile is close to worthless in redraft and genuinely useful in best ball, where a handful of spike weeks can win a lineup.

On the betting side, Denver's season win total should not move on a Hill signing, and anyone treating it as a meaningful roster upgrade is overreading a depth transaction. The market impact is confined to player props.

What to do in your league

Do not draft Taysom Hill in a standard redraft league. If he signs and Payton confirms a package role, he becomes a streaming option in weeks with favorable short-yardage matchups, and that is the correct way to use him.

In best ball, he is worth a final-round dart if the signing happens, purely for the spike-week profile.

The actionable move is on the other side. If Hill lands in Denver, downgrade the Broncos' lead back slightly in touchdown-dependent formats and check whether the market has adjusted. It usually has not.

What's next

Nothing is signed. Payton said Denver will consider it, which is a step short of a negotiation. Hill has not committed to playing at all, and a player entering his mid-thirties who has already walked away from the only franchise he has known may decide the answer is no.

The signal to watch is timing. If Hill signs during camp, he has a real role. If Denver waits until after roster cuts to bring him in, he is depth. And if the preseason passes without a deal, the most likely outcome is that Hill's career ended quietly in New Orleans without an announcement, which would be an oddly fitting close to one of the strangest usage patterns the NFL has produced in the last decade.