Saints Camp

[rajncajn]

This time I've got a little info from the official site as well as the usual notes.

 

http://www.neworleanssaints.com/Articles/2...e%20Report.aspx

Individual Battles Highlight Tuesday Workout

 

by Dave Lawrence, NewOrleansSaints.com

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 3:30 PM

 

Day five in Saints camp saw Coach Payton’s boys taking to the upper practice field at Millsaps battling thick Mississippi morning air. Luckily there was cloud cover but the mugginess made sure that there would be no reprieve from the steamy summer conditions.

 

The Saints went to work in the first of another double-session that featured some more red zone practice as well as a period of one of the more physical individual battles during camp when the offensive and defensive linemen practice their pass rush and pass block technique against each other.

 

In an early team period, Will Smith made a statement for the defense as he jumped up and batted down a Drew Brees pass.

 

Lance Moore – a name that continues to come up in the highlight rundowns through camp – made a fine catch as he leaped high into the air to snare the ball near the sideline.

 

Usama Young continued to make plays as the rookie dove to catch a tipped pass before quickly scrambling to his feet and sprinting up the field.

 

Defensive Tackle Hollis Thomas was a standout during one of the first rounds of a red zone drill, making multiple stops and generally disrupting things for the opposing offense.

 

Later in the red zone work, Brees lofted a beautiful ball to the back of the end zone that David Patten caught after beating his defender on a fade route.

 

The individual offensive/defensive line battles got underway next with guard Jamar Nesbit earning high marks by winning his match-up with each defensive lineman he faced.

 

Defensive tackle Brandon Villarreal went two-for-two in getting past guard Dave Yovanovits. Defensive end Willie Evans got the better of Rob Petitti a time or two and the young guys continued to impress when rookie offensive tackle Jermon Bushrod held his own with Pro Bowler Will Smith when the two were engaged.

 

While this camp favorite drill was going on in the east end zone, receivers and defensive backs were matched up on the other end of the field. In what was the play of the day, Terrance Copper was covered tightly by Mike McKenzie but was still able to make a fantastic catch of a Brees pass. Click here to see Copper describe his exciting catch.

 

As practice wound down, tight end Eric Johnson showed some of why Brees is so excited to have the free agent acquisition on board by catching a number of passes near or beyond the goal line in a red zone drill.

 

Seven players missed the morning practice, with Jon Hamm (quad), Roman Harper (knee), Jamal Jones (knee), Anton Palepoi (ankle) and Brian Young (foot) continuing to be on the sidelines. Aaron Stecker was excused from practice to be with his wife as she was delivering their second child and will return to camp Thursday.

 

Payton said after practice that the knee injury to Rob Ninkovich – who was carted off the field during Monday afternoon’s practice – was not as bad as originally feared, but that the defensive end will miss the next four weeks with a sprained MCL.

Saints Training Camp 2007

Tuesday, July 31st

 

 

 

The Hall of Fame game against the Steelers can’t get here soon enough. Not only are all of the fans incredibly anxious to see the Saints on television, I think the players are tired of playing each other and not hitting.

 

Practices are getting chippier and chippier and this afternoon Cody Burns practically leveled Antonio Pittman. Linemen are putting each other on the ground, the receivers and corners are starting to shove each other more, and it sure looks like all of these guys are just itching to go hit someone at this point.

 

Here’s to Sundays

 

 

I’m going to exercise writer’s prerogative and abandon the Winners and Losers format tonight. I watched our offensive and defensive lines and frankly I saw a lot of pretty talented and hard working players, none of whom deserved to be pigeon-holed as “Losers” for the sake of form. So instead just some broader interpretations of what I saw about some specific players today:

 

Andy Alleman – Boy did he look good today. The first thing you notice about Alleman is that he has the same lean body frame (for a lineman) that Faine has, but still looks “broader” across. He totally handled Boykin and flattened Evans and generally had a lot of success. He’s also very quick like Faine and gets to the second level fast. Really the only time I saw him struggle today was individually against Hollis Thomas (which he can be forgiven for).

 

Jermon Bushrod – I think he has some work to do upper-body wise. He seems to have the most trouble with the bull rush and doesn’t appear to be strong enough in the arms to really fend it off. But the way he handled Will Smith from the 2-point stance was impressive. The lateral quickness to be a Left Tackle in the NFL is definantly there. I was also fortunate enough to see him in some blitz pick-up situations where he blocks down on the defensive end and then rushes to the edge to pick up the blitzer. It’s a difficult block but he worked well in tandem with Alleman on the left side.

 

Jahri Evans & Jamar Nesbit – I forget what national media writer (I think Scouts Inc.) ranked our offensive line 21st, but even individually they’re crazy. Watching Nesbit and Evans closely today I think as a pair they’re ready to step into the top echelon of guards in the NFL. Evans is so strong. He’s really developing into a dangerous mauler on the right side and frankly Nesbit is an underrated athlete, even perhaps by me. He has really good quickness and stood up well even against the likes of Clancy and Thomas playing on his nose. He’s not the same degree of athlete as Evans is but just as in last season it seems the majority of the “technically difficult” blocks seems to fall on the left side to Nesbit. In one play in particular he had to drive down on the DT with the C and then crack backwards to seal off the backside against the DE (while the T slipped to the second level). Not a lot of teams expect that sort of range of motion out of their interior linemen. The Falcons under Gibbs, the Bronco’s of course, but we should count ourselves lucky to have Nesbit. As good as Alleman has looked thus far I don’t think Nesbit loses his spot, not this year at least.

 

Brandon Villareal – He got a lot of snaps at DE today and looked pretty good actually. Had surprising quickness, even at the edge, and looks like he has potential in a sort of Willie Whitehead role. The problem is he’s roughly even with a fairly large group of players such as Willie Evans, Josh Cooper, and McKinley Boykin, but he stands out a little because of his potential versatility and because while Cooper, Evans, and Ninkovich are roughly the same type of DE, Villareal fills a different role.

 

McKinley Boykin – I’ve already discussed him but he continues to look good. To be honest, after last pre-season, I’m a little hesitant to pump him up. But he has a lightening quick first step and really catches linemen off-balance. He even caught Jahri Evans once (but not twice) and on a run play where Zach Strief was supposed to block down on Boykin, Boykin exposed Strief’s lack of lateral speed and beat him to the gap. Boykin doesn’t appear to be very strong and he is a bit of a one-trick pony, if he doesn’t beat you to the punch he tends to die on the play, but as they say, you don’t teach “quickness” to a 300lber, and he has that.

 

Willie Evans – I continue to be a huge Willie Evans fan who continues to flash more versatility then I was lead to expect initially. He pretty much shoved #79 Pettiti to the ground and the next snap blew past him. He also had success against Strief who has had a great camp thus far, really driving Strief back on his heels with his quickness (Strief prevented the “sack” though by using his hands to keep Willie from really closing in on Strief).

 

Interesting Formations and Positions

 

Saw Charles Grant in a 2 –point stance right behind the DT, which seems like an interesting way of using his size and power inside. Jason Craft rotated into the 1st team today as the RCB, he also played a sort of FS spot in some cases (and that isn’t the first time I’ve seen him like that). All in all the defensive scheme even more dynamic and “confusing” this year then it was last year…and it’s only preseason. The depth they have at certain positions seems to be giving Gibbs the flexibility he craves. They also spent a considerable amount of time this afternoon working on the onside kick.

 

Robert Meachem Watch: 2007

 

I spent a little time watching Meachem because I know that’s what a lot of you want. He didn’t have any significant drops that I noticed and ran some good routes. But in a pretty good example of the problems Meachem faces, he ran one great route into the end zone but the ball was thrown well behind him. He still almost one-handed it behind his back Colston-style but he couldn’t come down with it.

 

This is pretty standard fare for Meachem. He’s dealt with some awful passes and while most of his drops are on him, he’s also had trouble showcasing what he does right because the ball isn’t getting to him.

 

Tomorrow morning’s practice is another walk-through which I’ll be skipping so you won’t see another training camp report until Wednesday night. Thursday is the last day I’ll be up here so just 3 more practices left for me. It’s been fun though guys and I’ve enjoyed the hell out of watching the Saints practice. A highly recommend experience.

Edited August 1, 2007 by rajncajn

[myhousekey]

Two new players given tryouts at camp

 

Tight end Ronnie Jenks and quarterback Matt Baker were given special tryouts following practice. But Coach Payton advised not to read too much into bringing another QB into camp.

 

"We're always kinda taking a look at what's out there...It's just paying attention to what we feel like are pretty good football players that just became available from Dallas. Obviously, if you're going to sign a player you have to make room for him," Payton said.