Saints camp notes 8-3

[rajncajn]

Originally posted by MSSaintfan

Hey everybody. Shorts and shells with a slight breeze, most comfortable morning I can remember so far this year. Big guys came out for a quick walkthrough of offensive plays with 11 0n 11 on both upper fields, had stretching and conditioning drills, then went in to lift weights the rest of the morning, while special teams and then 7 on 7 took place. Because they left, there was not as much to report on this a.m.

 

Beerman continues to be held out, but is taking every opportunity to work on catching passes and is getting into the huddles during plays to keep up with what is going on. Deuce participated in the early walkthroughs and then stayed out of the contact drills for the rest of the morning. He was however in the huddle and paying close attention to everything that went on.

 

In early passing drills, Colston had a gorgeous one handed catch that was a laser shot from Brees that was perfectly located high and to the right of the receiver so that no one else had a shot at it - crowd reaction was nice. Same think happened a few snaps later from AMac to Euhus. Then AMac to Zach.

 

Then special teams coach Bonamago put them through several aspects of the kicking game. In Kickoff Coverage, AMac lined up to cover and tackle, which is the first time I have seen him on that side of the ball. Payton is clearly trying to find ways to get him in the game. Then they worked on ant interesting punt block drill, that I have never seen before. It was different to say the least. I asked several others around if they had ever seen it and all responded no. Several of the players seemed to excel here, including Polley, Hilton, Euhus, Rabe, Bockwoldt, Colston, and Fincher. The best form? Freddie Mac by far. He was singled out buy Coach B for his technique and explosion to the point of contact off the punter's foot. They used a round playground ball instead of a football for this drill and had each player coming off a blocking dummy from the outside. They had to get the inside shoulder very low, and then explode to the punter.

 

In the punt return game, Colby B, Fujita and Fincher showed excellent downfield blocking and movement to spring the punt return men. Bush, J. Jones, Stecker, and Devery handled most of those, with most of them giving good effort once catching the ball and sprinting down the field. DH just jogged after his catches. He just doesn't look motivated. He did, however look better in the passing game this afternoon.

 

Gleason looked good on kickoff coverage drills, getting down the field to break up the blocking.

 

The kickoffs were handled primarily by Carney and Connor Hughes. Berger did not do any at all. Carney must be worried because I saw him kickoff better than I have seen in several years. Both he and Hughes were hitting the endzone on a regular basis. Of course, there was a slight breeze to their back.

 

When the 7 on 7 started things began picking up. Like in previous days, it seemed that Bouman was holding the ball to long and had trouble finding the open man. He wasn't making it down the progression of checkoffs, before he started panicking. For someone who has only been in camp for the second day, Jamie Martin looked very sharp, and had some beautiful throws. I believe (and this is JMHO) after seeing the way they looked today, that Bouman's days are indeed numbered. Martin and AMac both look sharper, and we will not keep 4 QB's. Bush looks awesome coming out of the backfield. They are sliding Karney into the flat at times and keeping Bush in to block, and then vice versa, whoever stays in is always wide open on the outlet, and Bush just absolutely busts it open on these routes. After saying this, I really think the D was doing a great job of coverage. On several plays, LB's broke up passes meant for RB's and even WR's. Mike McKenzie was like a blanket on Devery Henderson, and he could only get open once or twice. When he was open, Bouman would be the QB and not be able to get the ball to him.

 

On one deep pattern with Stecker, with good speed coming out of the backfield, Polley made up ground and used his massive wingspan to break up a sure TD. The whole crowd erupted because Stecker easily had a full yard or two on him and Polley just seemed to fly up and swat the ball with his reach. Afterwards, Polley could clearly be heard saying, "It ain't nothin'"

 

Bush went for TD's in these drills from the 40 and from the 20 (redzone drill) as he came out of the backfield on a delay with TE's and WR's and Karney all in the patterns. The safeties and LB's would all be on the other 4 recievers and Bush would be WIDE open.:hihi:

 

Lance Moore, Jamal Jones and Mike Hass also had great mornings, as did Horn and Colston. Stallworth started working with the second squad early on, then came back with the first squad. AMac had one unreal redzone TD pass to Lance Moore in traffic in the back of the endzone. I still can't figure out how he got that ball in there. Stecker also looked good coming out of the backfield, on several occasions, but the one time Fife found him the ball was overthrown and just beyond fingertips. Fife did have one beautiful throw to Lance Moore deep, but I really don't expect Fife to make the squad. Maybe PS. Drew continued his sharp throwing, and looked great. Bouman.......

 

Not much else to report as they didn't work on as many things. For those thinking of going, I was told by a Saints staff member that the afternoon session WOULD be open on the LOWER fields, which I haven't seen used yet this year. There are no bleachers there, so if you plan on coming, bring a lawn chair of some type. More after the pm practice.

 

Oh by the way, Reggie signed autographs for a few minutes this a.m. I was told they would not be signing, so I left my autograph ball in the car.

 

Ken

[Randall]

Nice. Thanks.