Saints Training Camp Reports

[myhousekey]

Thursday 8/21 Wrap Up

 

Drew Brees missed the first part of practice today because he was on a conference call with the NFL players association. Brees is on the executive council for the players association who lost their leader with the death of Gene Upshaw. Brees categorized Upshaw's passing as tragic and unexpected. He added that Upshaw is responsible for a lot of the benefits NFL players have today. Coach Payton also shared his thoughts on the Hall of Famer, saying Upshaw always put the league's best interest above the owners and players and that he will be sorely missed. Upshaw, who was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on Sunday, passed last night at the age of 63.

 

The team will have a quick walk-through Friday morning before flying out to Cincinnati for Saturday's game. We learned today that defensive linemen Brian Young and Sedrick Ellis with likely sit out this weekend because of lingering injuries. Mike McKenzie though should play. He will be making his first appearance since tearing his ACL last December. Payton says this is about as quick as you could expect a guy to return from such an injury and they are anxious to see him on the field. McKenzie is expected to see about a quarter of action and the same goes for Jeremy Shockey.

 

Shockey has practiced every day this week, a first in training camp. Brees says he is really looking forward to the new tight end getting in there so they can truly start to develop some communication on the field. Brees says he needs that trust where he can just give a wink or nod and Shockey will understand what the quarterback needs from him.

 

Another issued discussed today was what the team will do with Hollis Thomas and Adrian Arrington. Coach Payton says both are tough decisions and what they'll do with them won't be decided until after the final pre-season game. The issue with Thomas is to either put him on the injured reserve or keep him on the active roster. If he's put on the IR, then he's out for the year. If he's left on the active roster than he could return whenver he's healthy, but that will be one less roster spot the team has while he's out. With Arrington, the team must decide whether they want to keep him and possibly have him go to the injured reserve, or if he hasn't shown enough in his first camp they may cut him. The first cut day is early next week with the roster being trimmed from 80 to 75 and then on August 30th teams must be down to the regular season limit of 53 players.