NFL assigns Adrian Hill to referee Saints vs. Vikings - Saints Wire

The NFL has assigned 11-year veteran official Adrian Hill and his crew to work Week 16’s New Orleans Saints game, in which the black and gold will welcome the Minnesota Vikings to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Hill, 56, was promoted to referee in 2019 after spending the bulk of his career as a field judge or side judge, with his first four years on the job as a line judge.

Hill has only worked one Saints game before in his capacity as a referee; that would be Dec. 6’s matchup between the Saints and Atlanta Falcons, which New Orleans won 21-16 at the Superdome. The Saints were fouled 10 times for 79 yards in that tilt, while Atlanta drew just one 15-yard roughing the passer penalty.

That’s an odd disparity, and it’s out of character for Hill’s crew on the year so far. Home teams have been penalized 83 times compared to 91 fouls for road teams in the games Hill has worked. Maybe things will go a little more smoothly in Week 16.

They’ll certainly be hoping for it. The Saints are tied for the seventh-most penalties in the NFL (90), but they lead the league in penalty yards (936) as one of the only two teams to yield 900 or more on the year so far — the other being the 1-13 Jacksonville Jaguars. New Orleans’ fouls have overwhelmingly come from the defensive side of the ball, where they’ve been flagged 58 times for 666 penalty yards, ranking worst in the NFL in each category.

Much of that is due to spot-fouls for defensive pass interference; the Saints have received 17 of those for 314 yards, again leading the league. It’s been an area of frustration throughout the year, aggravated by the Saints offense ranking 12th-worst in benefiting from the same calls on the other team.

We could see a lot of Hill on Friday. His crew has thrown the second-most penalty flags (174) to rank second-most in penalty yards (1,517). Here’s hoping they do a better job keeping their laundry clean and Hill doesn’t eat up too much screen time.