Over the past few years the New Orleans Saints have been a
prolific offense. Since coming to the Saints in 2006, Drew Brees has thrown for
43,685 yards and 316 touchdowns. Many people attribute a lot of his success to
the addition of Jimmy Graham, but he was doing it before Graham, and he will be
doing it after.
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| Image source: star-telegram.com |
Some have said that the Saints will probably be shifting to
a more run heavy offense in the coming season. Some of their personnel moves
are certainly signaling this. But that doesn’t mean that the Saints won’t be
throwing the ball at all. Brees has become one of the best quarterbacks of all
time. Not the top guy, but in the Top 15 conversation. So why would he stop
throwing now? And in a division where there is only one team that actually
plays defense? Come on. The Saints themselves can’t play much defense, so of
course they will be throwing the ball.
This brings me to the point of the article. Acquiring a
target likely to see some good field time, and targets from Brees. A big
target. A red zone target. And a big red zone target that you can currently
find in the round 10 or 11 areas of the Average Draft Position on fantasypros.com.
Once the Saints traded away Jimmy Graham there was a void
left to be filled. Well let’s take a look at a 6’5” 229lb void filling, red
zone target in Josh Hill. The trade of Graham instantly made the situation that
Hill finds himself in much better for his prospects, and the prospects of
Fantasy owners that take a chance on him this season. Hill does lack a bit in
experience in his two seasons of NFL football, only having a total of 20
catches for 220 yards. The fantastic thing is that of his 20 catches, a
whopping six of them are for touchdowns. That is a ridiculous rate. Yes
unsustainable, but it shows that Hill at least has a chance to take some of the
role that was Graham’s in New Orleans.
The Saints have a mixed bag at wide receiver this season. An
aging Marques Colston has seen both his catches and yards decline over the past
few years. The Saints drafted Brandin Cooks last season, but he is unproven,
and ended up injured last year. Nick Toon has gotten some buzz as well this
offseason, but has only been able to see the field for 16 games over his first
three seasons with the saints. Ben Watson is hanging around, and is the biggest
direct threat to Hill at the tight end spot, but he is 34 years old and two
inches shorter.
In regards to the schedule of defenses against the tight end
points allowed that Hill will face this season, it looks good. The schedule is
the fifth best schedule for tight ends for the year, coming in at an average
rank of 18.06. Only four Top 10 teams in fantasy points allowed to tight ends
are on the slate.
If you don’t end up getting one of the elite guys early in
your draft, Hill starts to look pretty juicy at an ADP of 115 on
fantasypros.com in PPR formats. My suggestion is if you draft Hill, take
another tight end with some upside potential later in the draft and see if you
hit on one of them, maybe both. Keep an eye on the playing time and target
distribution during the preseason, but for a fairly late pick, he’s worth the
gamble in my opinion.
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