Taysom Hill is the "Thor-terback"

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We've seen Hill line up as a read-option quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, kickoff returner and special teams coverage specialist. He has converted two fake punts (one passing and one running). And he has run the ball 18 times for 125 yards and a touchdown for a 5-1 team that is gaining steam.

During one practice session, Payton practically looked like he was drawing up a new play in the dirt (or the artificial turf, anyway), moving players around like chess pieces.

"It's kind of a learning process, you know. And I think having this weapon now is really intriguing, because Taysom is so versatile, he can do so many things," said Brees, who is now lining up as a wide receiver a few times a game -- though the ball hasn't been thrown his way yet. So for now, he has one career TD reception from LaDanian Tomlinson with the San Diego Chargers in 2003.

But the season is young.

"We're still just kind of scratching the surface," Brees said. "We're still just kind of learning what we can do with all that stuff."

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Hill is a rare athletic specimen at 6-foot-2, 221 pounds, who reportedly ran the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds at BYU's pro day in 2017. And teammates and coaches marvel at his weight room prowess. Apparently coaches in college told him he wasn't allowed to squat more than 700 pounds. And Saints punter Thomas Morstead said when he squats 500 pounds, he looks like he's just casually standing up out of a chair.

So when coaches see him, they all think, "What can I do with this guy?"

That's how longtime special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff felt when he joined the Saints' staff during last season and asked to borrow Hill for his own purposes (Hill finished the year with four special teams tackles and has three more this season).

That's how Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy felt when the Packers signed Hill as a 26-year-old undrafted rookie out of BYU last year before he missed the 53-man roster cut. Green Bay wanted Hill back on its practice squad, but the Saints claimed him off waivers instead.

And that's how Bronco Mendenhall, Hill's first college coach at BYU, felt when Hill joined the Cougars after a two-year Mormon mission in 2012.

Mendenhall, who is now the coach at Virginia, said the Cougars also rewrote their playbook to design an attack around Hill's abilities as both a runner and passer -- with a heavy emphasis on the read-option.

"When we saw him it was, 'OK, he can throw it. But let's research and design and develop this other component.' So it was enough to change an entire style of play," said Mendenhall, who laughed as he heard a list of everything Hill has done with the Saints this season.

"It doesn't surprise me, it just makes me smile. It's just like, 'Yeah, totally. What else can he do? Is that all they're doing with him? There's gotta be something else,'" Mendenhall joked. "I wish during my career I could have him again, because you're always trying to figure out how else you can innovate and be creative to get him on the field in a way to help you win."

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Although Mendenhall can't work with Hill specifically anymore, he has forever shaped the coach's perception of the type of quarterback he's looking for:

A superhero type.

Mendenhall said he couldn't remember who it was, exactly. But someone on BYU's staff referred to Hill as a "Thor-terback," and the name immediately stuck because "he's part superhero and part quarterback all in one."

"There's really nothing you could tell me that he's done on the field that would surprise me. He leaps tall buildings in a single bound and he stops locomotives. And he does basically anything physically that I could ever imagine," said Mendenhall, who said it wasn't just Hill's athleticism, but the combination of power and speed, great decision-making and his character as a role model that made the "superhero" idea so fitting.

And now, Mendenhall said, "That is our brand."

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But the progress -- and the growing faith the Saints have in Hill -- is impossible to miss. He played a career-high 26 snaps in that critical Week 7 slugfest at Baltimore, including an 11-yard run during the go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter when he was lined up as a true running back and took the pitch from Brees.

According to ESPN Stats & Information tracking, Brees and Hill have been on the field together for eight of the Saints' 24 offensive touchdowns this season. The rest of the NFL has scored a total of three touchdowns with two quarterbacks on the field.

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