Saints Camp Notes

[rajncajn]

Be sure to check the 7/27 thread as well. I added some more info there as well.

Same drill as before, a few of my notes from this morning with the broader run down coming in tonight’s recap.

 

- Clancy lined up with the first team today with Hollis Thomas playing with the second team (theory was Thomas, who came to camp out of shape, took to many knees yesterday)

 

- Maybe it was motivation but H Thomas wasn’t the last person to finish in today’s running drills

 

- Boykin was with the 2nd team alongside H Thomas (Lake still with the first and no other line-up changes that I noticed)

 

- Patten had another outstanding day in the WR drills

 

 

- Linebackers also did some INT drills. 54 Fincher had a great one handed grab but by and large it was fairly ordinary.

 

- 13 Hosack has poor acceleration and is just too longed legged to make any sharp cuts.

 

- 74 Bushrod put a number of people on their butts during some of the linemen drills

 

- One of the notable exceptions was 64 Willie Evans who got leverage and used his hands to put Bushrod on the ground.

 

- Ninkovich wasn’t able to get any movement on either Bushrod or Strief but he had a really nice hand pop that almost took Eric Johnson’s helmet off.

 

- Eric Johnson by the way looked to be almost as good as Campbell in terms of blocking in these drills

 

- After all my raving on Devery yesterday McKenzie took Devery to school a bit on a short out and Devery ended up dropping the pass.

 

- Copper did a great job on Craft and got open deep for one of the more spectacular plays for today

 

- Meachem had another solid day in the full speed drills, getting so much separation on a slant he took it to the house.

 

- I don’t see any chance Anwar Phillips makes this team

 

- Jason David had one of the more spectacular defensive plays of the day. He actually got beat on a hitch but his recovery speed is so phenomenal he was able to knife in there and deflect the pass.

 

- 42 Jason David also fielded punts. In his post-practice press conference he said he might get a shot back there as well (as a returner)

 

- Grant had another big day

 

- Bush ended up against Kaesviharn in 7-on-7’s again. Expected result, except Brees overthrew the wide-open Bush.

 

- Jammal Branch was back at fullback in the 7-on-7’s. They also had both him and Eric Johnson rotating at a sort of Gibb’s H-back type role. I wouldn’t read too much into this yet though until we see it in a regular formation, not 7-on-7’s.

 

- Johns Owens took a pass practically off the helmet of Trev Faulk.

 

- Rhema McKnight struggled a little in a few drills but ended the practice with a Reggie-esque open field spin move.

[rajncajn]

Complete notes for the day...notice the Patten statement, this isn't the first time I've heard this & it's coming from multiple sources that Patten is playing up to the #2 role. To be perfectly honest it's probably way too early to bite just yet but it's certainly something to keep a sharp eye on. It may just be the #2 position, but more consistant play from a single reciever at that position could fair very well in larger leagues.

Saints Training Camp 2007

Saturday, July 28th

 

 

 

A word to any member of the Saints organization who happens to have accidentally stumbled upon this. Memorial Stadium is a terrible place to hold an afternoon practice. A concrete oven, practically a solar collector with it’s bleached seats; it’s steamy, bright, and hot.

 

The Saints seemed to take this into account as practice started slowly, but that pace didn’t last long. To give some of you who have never been to a Sean Payton camp before some idea of the pace we’re dealing with here I logged the types of drills I saw in a 20 minute segment of the afternoon practice.

 

Defensive Agility Drills (whole defense)

Offensive Screen Passes

QB-RB handoff

Offensive line drills

WR blocking drills

Backpedal drills (the back 7 of the defense)

Pass rush drills

LB 4-cone

WR screen pass

Some sort of RB tractor pull deal (lead RB pulled on a rope while the RB behind him provided resistance. FYI Mike Karney won this drill)

Everyone except linemen, offense and defense, got to catch the ball.

 

And I’m sure as I busily tried to record all of this I missed another 4 or 5 drills. All in the space of 20 minutes. No break, little explanation, and every player seemed to know exactly what was happening, which is a lot more then I can say for myself.

 

Now for today’s winners and losers (since everyone seemed to like that format)

 

Winners

 

David Patten – Great route runner with good speed as well. I’m beginning to accept that he’s going to provide a real challenge to Devery Henderson. The race for “#2” spot seems to clearly be between him and Henderson. I think Copper is locked in behind Colston and Meachem is probably to far behind to really challenge either one (but that could rapidly change of course)

 

Jason David – Is how much I like this guy becoming too evident? Do I need to pull back on the gushing some? All I can say is he looks much better for us then he ever did with the Colts and I think that has everything to do with what we’re asking him to do as opposed to what the Colts kept asking him to do.

 

Willie Evans – I paid more attention to the line play today and in particular focused on the defensive line almost the whole of this afternoons practice. Of the “marginal” players Willie Evans is the guy who really caught my eye the most. This morning he was the one who gave Bushrod the most trouble in the tandem blocking drills and today he frankly dominated Bushrod at times in the offensive/defensive line drills and in the full-speed drills. Bushrod redeemed himself a little towards the end of practice but if I were placing bets on the 4th DE on the roster, I’m favoring Willie Evans at this point.

 

Charles Grant – I should probably mention him here finally. I’ve been trying not to focus on the marquee players and it’s hard to refer to a guy who is secure in a starting position and a new long-term contract as a “winner” because of a training camp battle but…he has completely dominated Rob Petitti for two days now and it’s been difficult to not notice. Some of this is the level of competition of course, but it’s pretty evident Grant isn’t resting on his new deal either. It’ll be a key battle to watch when Stinchomb comes back,

 

Losers

 

Rob Pettiti – Speaking of Rob Petitti…At this point I can’t see him beating out either Bushrod of Strief. The likelihood of him making the roster seems very slim at this point.

 

Anwar Phillips – Another guy who appears to be struggling in a strong field of competitors. He’s had a couple of opportunities to make an adjustment on a poorly thrown ball and had it bounce off his hands. And in one of those cases he was in position to get the “poorly thrown ball” only because despite the ball being under thrown he was badly beat enough on the route that he was actually in position for the pick. He has gotten physical in run defense, more so then many of the CBs, so I think the effort is there. It just seems evident at this point that the talent isn’t.

 

Josh Cooper – I really locked onto him and Willie Evans the most for almost an hour this afternoon and it looks, to my amateur eye, that Evans has a definite leg up on Cooper at this point. Cooper wasn’t able to get any push or beat anyone to the edge and a couple of times was handled by TE John Owens on running plays. And Cooper has largely been working against Ben Archibald since Stinchomb is out, so the competition isn’t so much of an issue.

 

 

Overall defensive line impressions

Some notes I jotted down on various linemen

 

Willie Evans – Great use of hands and good upper body strength. I had “speed/quickness concerns?” down until I saw him flash some great quickness and beat Bushrod around the edge when Bushrod really tried to dig in near the end of the afternoon practice. That has since been crossed out.

 

Josh Cooper – Doesn’t look strong in his upper body and always seems to have his arms locked up. Blockers engage him and that seems to be the end of the play for him. Maybe just totally unsuited for the LDE position.

 

McKinley Boykin – Showed some lightening quick penetration at times and honestly looked like the best pass rusher out of all of the defensive tackles today. Unfortunately he was in the same line-up as Cooper. I have a note to pay considerably more attention to him tomorrow.

 

Antwan Lake – Seems to be struggling at getting penetration, especially against Nesbit. Seems to have a good “pop” and can get the guard to set up behind the LOS, but doesn’t get any movement beyond that. Starting to think he might have been better as a 2-gap NT type.

 

Jahri Evans – Dominated every time I looked at him.

 

Rob Ninkovich – Had the misfortune of going up against Zach Strief, who has looked good so far. One thing I noticed about Ninkovich though is how well he uses his hands to create space between him and the lineman and keep the lineman moving. But Strief still won most of the battles.

[BOO]

Well, it is early Rajn and it will be very interesting to see how it all plays out. Many good things to say from most about Patten, Henderson, and Copper - and they are saying Meachem is coming along as well (no lingering injury effects at least). My gut feeling is that they probably want to keep Devery in the slot (like last year), and that they will want Meachem to earn the #2 by mid season - so that would leave Patten and Copper to duke it out for the #2 for the first half of the year- assuming Meachem comes along nicely. We may not know anything until the first real game who the #2 is, but with this offense the #2 and #3 should get plenty of looks.