Saints say Taysom Hill 'likely' has a season-ending knee injury

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans tight end Taysom Hill is likely to miss the rest of the season after injuring his left knee in the Saints' loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

“It looks like an ACL tear,” interim coach Darren Rizzi said Monday. “He’ll probably get a second opinion, but it looks like it will be season-ending.”

Hill, who is listed at tight end but plays a variety of roles, was carted off the field after taking a hard hit to the knee while converting a fourth down on a direct snap in the Saints’ 21-14 loss Sunday to the Rams.

The injury came one game after he'd posted a career-best 138 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns in a victory over Cleveland. He also has lined up at quarterback and running back, as well as playing special teams.

“It means everybody else has to step up,” Rizzi said. “He fills so many roles, so there are going to be a lot of different guys that have to be a part of the solution there. It’s hard to sit here and tell you we are going to replace Taysom. You can’t. He’s a phenomenal person, player, leader and captain. It’s a big loss."

Hill is the third key offensive player the Saints have lost. He joins leading wide receivers Chris Olave, who suffered a concussion in Week 9 and has not played since, and Rashid Shaheed, who is out for the year after tearing a meniscus in Week 7. Rizzi said guard Nick Saldiveri also might miss the remaining five games after injuring his left knee in the fourth quarter one series before Hill.

Without Hill, though, the Saints’ quest to get back in the NFC South race becomes even tougher. At 4-8, they trail Atlanta and Tampa Bay by two games.

Hill — who played quarterback in college at BYU — has 99 catches, 437 carries, 302 passes, 44 touchdowns, 19 tackles and one blocked kick in seven years with the Saints.

“I don’t know if I can compare Taysom to anybody else that I’ve ever coached,” Rizzi said. “There’s not a guy that comes to mind that has been able to do all the different things he’s been able to do just in one game, forget about his career.”

Alvin Kamara had his third 100-yard rushing game of the year and is 106 yards away from the first 1,000-yard season of his eight-year career. He needs only 39 more yards to set a career high. His 206 carries are the third most in his career.

Los Angeles averaged 5.4 yards per carry, finishing with 156 yards. Running back Kyren Williams said the Rams knew at halftime they would win if they stuck to the ground game, and he carried seven times on the opening series of the third quarter as they took the lead. The Saints have allowed 5.1 yards per carry for the season — tied for last with the New York Giants.

Signed in late October after Shaheed’s season-ending surgery, Marquez Valdes-Scantling has become Derek Carr’s go-to receiver for big plays. His 28-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter was the Saints’ longest gain of the day and his fourth score in the past three games.

Tight end Foster Moreau, a reliable performer all year, could not handle Rams outside linebacker Jared Verse on the Saints’ final offensive snap, allowing him to hit Carr as he released a pass on fourth-and-3 from the Los Angeles 9 with New Orleans trailing by 7.

Although the news was bad for Hill and Saldiveri, Rizzi said he expected starting center Erik McCoy to play Sunday against the Giants. McCoy was scratched against the Rams after aggravating a groin injury two weeks earlier versus Cleveland in his first game back since missing seven in a row.

Rizzi said oft-injured running back Kendre Miller, who has played in two games this year, might return from a hamstring injury Sunday.

2 — The number of sacks for the Saints, not enough to keep Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford from finding his rhythm in the second half. In the Rams’ last five losses, he has been sacked 20 times. In their last five wins, he has been sacked three times.

With their NFC South hopes on life support, the Saints travel to face the reeling Giants, who have lost seven in a row.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi watches from the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) leaps over Los Angeles Rams cornerback Darious Williams (24) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) is tackled by Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Tyler Davis (90) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) is carted off the field during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) is carted off the field during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) goes down with an injury during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

TORONTO (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday.

Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump's threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada's economy.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump's comments were in jest.

“The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.

LeBlanc described it as a three-hour social evening at the president’s residence in Florida on a long weekend of American Thanksgiving. “The conversation was going to be light-hearted,” he said.

He called the relations warm and cordial and said the fact that “the president is able to joke like that for us” indicates good relations.

The minister said there is no transcript.

“It wasn’t a meeting in a boardroom with 10 bureaucrats keeping notes,” he said. "It was a social evening and there were moments where it was entertaining and funny, and there were moments where we were able to do good work for Canada.”

Earlier last week, the Republican president-elect threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.

Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, told The Associated Press that Trudeau was successful in getting Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that there is no comparison between the Canada-U.S. border and Mexico-U.S. border when it comes to drugs and migrants.

Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.

At the dinner, Hillman said America’s trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. is energy exports and prices have been high.

“Trade balances are something that he focuses on so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context,” Hillman told the AP. “We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that.”

Hillman said Canada sold $170 billion worth of energy products last year to the U.S.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well

Trudeau held a rare meeting with opposition leaders on Tuesday to discuss the tariff threat.

"The president-elect was elected on a promise to make America richer. These tariffs would make America poorer,” opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said after the meeting.

“They would raise energy prices when he promised that he would cut them in half. They would kill American jobs and drive up the American cost of living. And those are the arguments that I intend to make to anyone in a position of authority who will listen to them between now and January 20th."

Poilievre said the right thing to do for the U.S. would be to do more free trade with its best friend and closest ally.

Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.

About 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.

During Trump’s first term, his move to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, and reports that he was considering a 25% tariff on the auto sector were considered an existential threat in Canada.

Trudeau's government successfully employed a “Team Canada” approach during Trump’s first term in office when the free trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was renegotiated. But Trudeau’s minority government is in a much weaker position politically now and faces an election within a year.

Trudeau returned home after the dinner at Mar-a-Lago club in Florida without assurances Trump would back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

The flows of migrants and seizures of drugs are vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.

Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.

On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with irregular migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at an event where it was announced that Prince Edward Island has signed on to the Federal School food program, in Mount Stewart, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Ron Ward/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks through the lobby of the Delta Hotel by Marriott, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)