Cowboys' Mike McCarthy laments Saints TE Taysom Hill as one who got away: 'We thought he was a hell of a QB'

FRISCO, Texas -- When you've been in the NFL as long as Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy -- 18 seasons as a head coach and 31 seasons overall -- there's an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane with every regular-season matchup.

Dallas' home opener in Week 2 is against the New Orleans Saints , a 1-0 squad whose roster includes tight end/Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill . Hill wasn't always in New Orleans though. His NFL career began on McCarthy's Green Bay Packers as a 27-year-old, undrafted free agent quarterback out of BYU, and he had a strong preseason with McCarthy calling the plays: 149 passing yards and two touchdowns on 14 of 20 passing (70% completion percentage) while rushing 10 times for 71 yards and a touchdown. His 7.1 yards per carry ranked as the fourth-most in the NFL that preseason among players with at least 10 carries.

However, McCarthy and then-general manager Ted Thompson had a disagreement about how to handle his potential Packers roster spot. The head coach felt it may have been wise to find a spot for Hill, but Thompson preferred using the backup quarterback spot behind Aaron Rodgers in 2017 on 2015 fifth-round quarterback Brett Hundley , who was three years younger than Hill at the age of 24 at the time. Thompson also felt they could sneak Hill back on their practice. That obviously ended up not being the case. The Saints officially claimed Hill from the Packers off of waivers one day after he was released.

"We thought he was a hell of a quarterback," McCarthy said Thursday. "Frankly, I think every year when you sit down at the end of training camp, I know it's the way I've done it: you have 58, 59, 60 different numbers every year. Obviously where players you feel like they really earned the opportunity to be on the 53. Taysom was one of those guys. He clearly played well. I think he may have led the league, the whole NFL, in rushing in the preseason. He played extremely well that year. Frankly, we thought we'd try to slide him on the practice squad. That lasted about two minutes."

Hill, now a converted tight end and gadget player after years behind Drew Brees among other quarterbacks in New Orleans, is the only player in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) with at least 10 passing touchdowns (11), 10 rushing touchdowns (27) and 10 receiving touchdowns (11) in his career. He is also the first player to accomplish this feat in a career since Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, whose New York Giants career spanned from 1952-1964.  The 34-year-old has earned $42.7 million in career earning, per OverTheCap.com . Not too shabby for an older, undrafted free agent quarterback who was cut after his first training camp.

"He's still in New Orleans," McCarthy said. "His career, what he's done, it's been awesome to watch from afar. He came in as an older player. Obviously very mature. I really liked him as a quarterback. With [then-head coach] Sean [Payton] and then the offense doing [everything] with him down there is fun to watch. I think just like anything, more value that you can add obviously your job security will be a little longer. He's mastered that. He's a weapon. He is a weapon. He does a lot of things. He's a bigger man [6-foot-2, 221 pounds] than when I had him in [Packers] training camp. I thought he was a very good, young quarterback prospect. Put that down."

Now that McCarthy has that off of his chest, he is ready for his Cowboys squad to game plan against his one-time former pupil.