Saints Camp

[rajncajn]

Some focus on defensive formations today with some very interesting formations using Will Smith & Roman Harper in the LB position. IDPers put on your thinking caps.

Saints Training Camp 2007

Sunday, July 29th

 

 

 

Today’s afternoon practice was back in Memorial but someone had the bright idea to move us to the other side of the stadium (you know, so we aren’t looking directly into the sun) and the difference was considerable. Much more enjoyable then yesterday,

 

My focus today has been on our secondary, highlighted by the return of Usama Young and the battle between Bullocks and Kaesviharn. Coincidentally, Sean Payton obliged by devoting much of practice time to a variety of nickel formations. The one I was most interested in (and the one that’ll probably get the most people excited about) was a sort of 3-3-5 nickel formation. I say “3-3-5”, in personnel it was actually a straight dime package of 4 linemen, 1 line backer, and 6 defensive backs. However Will Smith and Roman Harper both lined up as linebackers with Kaesviharn and Bullocks as the deep safeties.

 

Which also brings me to our first line-up “change” as Kaesviharn and Jason David joined the first team this afternoon. They didn’t strictly replace Fred Thomas and Jay Bellamy, who remain with the first team as well, but they did get the bulk of the snaps this afternoon (in large part, I’m sure, to Bellamy and Thomas getting all of the snaps in that formation this morning).

 

Anyways it was fun to watch Will Smith work from a 2-point stance and watch Harper be more involved at the LOS. Will Smith had a nice pass deflection this morning from this setup and from the way it appears they’re using Harper, Harper may very well have as many sacks as Shanle. Having Kaesviharn gives us this flexibility, so it also highlights how important a signing he was.

 

That said, today’s Winners and Losers

 

Winners

 

Tramain Hall – He’s back. Again. Last time I couldn’t even get his name right but I’ve had to pay more attention since then. This is still a very streaky player who is liable to drop as many passes in basic WR drills as he makes spectacular plays while covered. And he’s still working against 2nd and 3rd string. But he also has as many “big plays” as any of our Wide Receivers outside of maybe David Patten. His list of victims continues to grow including 31 Joe Porter, 38 Usama Young, and a great open field run after the catch in the afternoon practice.

 

I can’t imagine how he’ll fit into the active roster but considering his versatility in special teams (he’s been involved heavily in all of the special teams units including as a KR and PR) he might be the actual favorite to be on the practice squad this season.

 

Usama Young – For much of the day he was hot and cold, which was to be expected of a rookie who missed the start of camp. But he blew everyone away with what was probably the best interception in training camp so far. While most of the interceptions thus far in camp have been poor reads/throws by the QBs this was all Usama.

 

Now I don’t want to read too far into this but you can judge for yourselves. What I found significant was earlier in the day Rhema McKnight ran a tough hitch route on Usama that Usama was unable to get his hands in and deflect the ball. It wasn’t bad coverage, it’s just a tough route to cover. Fast forward to later in the same practice, Rhema McKnight once again runs the same route, but this time Usama is all over the route, runs it better then McKnight and practically robs him for the ball which he takes to the house.

 

Scott Fujita – Was outstanding in pass coverage this afternoon. I wasn’t even watching linebackers and couldn’t help but notice how good he looked covering. He ran one route better then Aaron Stecker who he was covering and stayed with Meachem all the way on a deep slant. Meachem managed to get a little separation from Fujita but Fujita was close enough that Meachem ended up dropping the pass and did better underneath Meachem then Chris Reis did over the top of Meachem (Meachem was double covered).

 

Krystals – Their restaurant is clean, their little burgers great, and wireless free, always up, and at all of their locations. Cheers Krystals.

 

Losers

 

Aaron Hosack – It’s not that he’s doing anything specifically poorly, he just isn’t an NFL receiver. He’s slow off the LOS, stays high and makes long looping cuts, and doesn’t really have the bulk to go on his tall frame to even out muscle receivers. Jason David actually lost a battle today against Marques Colston when Colston just used his wide frame to shield against David’s typical knifing in to deflect the pass. By contrast a similar short route with Hosack presented no challenge to David for the deflection. If you’re going to be slow and gangly (which Colston isn’t anyways) you at least need have the frame to shield smaller CBs and know how to do so (which Colston has as well).

 

Robert Meachem – Hesitate to put him here but it is what it is. He struggled a little more today then it seems he had in the past. Ran a nice route on Fujita and Reis as mentioned above but didn’t quite get the separation you’d expect from him against a LB (to be fair this was as much to Fujita’s credit as it was to Meachem’s fault) and then dropped a pretty good pass to him. He also had a couple more drops in the WR drills today and didn’t have any compensating spectacular plays.

 

I wouldn’t worry too much though. The coaching staff seems to be hard on the case. While most of the younger wide receivers threw to each other on the near sideline before practice Meachem was off alone with Saints WR Coach Curtis Johnson receiving one-on-one instruction, running out routes. Meachem has consistently received extra instruction as he tries to catch up from missing much of the mini-camps and the staff seems heavily invested in helping him succeed.

 

Chris Reis – He’s had hands of stone most of the training camp, he had another rough afternoon today getting caught out of position more then once and getting picked up by down the field blockers like Eric Johnson. Also blew the over the top coverage on Meachem as noted above even though Meachem ended up dropping the pass. I’m a little worried about who our 4th Safety will be.

 

Starbucks – If you put a gun to my head and asked me to name one place with free wireless Starbucks would have been one of my “safer” bets. Wrong. Apparently you have to purchase a “subscription” to use their wireless. Krystals, Subway, McDonalds all have free wireless hot spots but apparently Starbucks’ wireless is of such a high degree of quality you have to pay for it. That’s alright Starbucks, I wrote my article there anyways, got a ton of free drinks from your “highly trained bistro staff” and then hauled my butt over to Subway to use their plebeian wireless.

 

 

Training Camp Battles to Watch

 

Kevin Kaesviharn vs Josh Bullocks – I paid attention to this all day today and made more then a few notes.

 

First, it’s important to impress upon everyone just how much pressure we seem to put on our deep safeties. One play in particular stood out to me where the offense sent 4 receivers deep and the only person playing deep zone was Josh Bullocks. It was really an impossible situation with no “right” answer. Fortunately he was bailed out by the incredible play of Jason David (bet you haven’t heard that enough yet) who deflected the pass, but there was no way Bullocks could have been in position to defend the pass.

 

That said Bullocks was out of position at times today. One play in particular which I honestly needed to see a second (and a third, and a …) to analyze was where Bullocks was lined up as if he were going to play a deep zone but then switched off to something closer to the LOS. The QB Fife called an audible and had both Jason David and Bullocks playing near the LOS. Dante Ridgeway went virtually free down the sideline for a TD. I don’t know for sure what Bullocks was thinking or if that was even his fault but it’s clear David didn’t think he had a deep zone there and someone had the responsibility for staying over Ridgeway down the field.

 

They flipped the formation and ran what seemed to be the same play except this time Kaesviharn stayed over the top and the pass wasn’t completed. Obviously if it was the exact same play Kaesviharn knew what was coming, but it still seems to illustrate to me the problem we had with Bullocks last season. He inexplicably would abandon what was surely his responsibility in the scheme. I’m sure its because he thinks he sees something and is trying to make a “play” but still.

 

But by the same token Bullocks made a number of good plays and almost made my “Winners” despite the above play. There’s little doubt in my mind he’s the better athlete and it really shines through at times as he makes athletic plays on the ball. He also made some very solid reads on which routes to jump on and when. That said Kaesviharn at this point maybe our more consistent FS which, considering the pressure we put on that position, may be what we need the most at that spot.

 

It’s a long pre-season though folks, so stay tuned.

 

*Sidenote – Tomorrow morning is an abbreviated “walk-through” practice. So I’m sleeping in and won’t attend it. I will be attending the longer 3:40 to 6:00 afternoon practice however and since the Monday morning practice will be so light and the afternoon practice is extended, my hope is we’ll get to see some hitting and at the least a lot of full-speed type stuff. So I might be able to more then make it up to you guys in the afternoon.

[myhousekey]

Thanks rajn...I look forward to reading these everyday, especially since i'm not in the area of Saints tv news coverage.

 

at Krystal vs. Starbucks.