So how will the Saints and Taysom Hill determine whether he’s paid as a quarterback or as a guy who plays some other position under his new hybrid deal that’s worth as little as $40 million and as much as $95 million?
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the magic number is 224.
If Hill throws at least 224 passes in a season (an average of 13 attempts per game), he gets paid as a quarterback. The number comes from the labor deal; it’s the minimum pass-attempt threshold for incentives.
For incentives in playoff games, the quarterback trigger is 10 passes per game.
So it doesn’t matter where he lines up or whether he takes, for example, quarterback snaps and runs the ball. What matters is passes thrown.
The goal by both sides was to come up with a fair and objective standard, and the total swing becomes $55 million over four years.