IRVINE -- The first day of Saints training camp went by quickly, as NFL rules limited the team to only an hour and a half of on-field work for Wednesday's session. Here's the rundown of all the action from the black and gold that you need to know from Day 1.
ATTENDANCE
It was all good signs for the first day to open up training camp, which was somewhat expected. The only player I didn't spot was Nephi Sewell, who is on the PUP list. Juwan Johnson (foot) and Tanoh Kpassagnon (Achilles) were both out there, but were obviously not in pads. Johnson was no longer sporting a sporting boot, for what it's worth.
Kendre Miller and Justin Herron both left practice early, with Miller getting out during individual drills has a hamstring injury. Herron left towards the end of practice with a knee injury, but the initial prognosis is nothing major. Dennis Allen made it a point to single Miller out during his post-practice press conference.
Allen said, “That’s a player who needs to figure out how to stay healthy because you can’t make the team in the training room."
That's not an ideal start for Kendre Miller, to say the least.
Meanwhile, no limitations for Chris Olave, as he participated in team drills. Chase Young was a limited participant and was the second defensive end in walkthroughs opposite of Payton Turner.
STARTING LOOKS AND MORE
Not much changed from minicamp for the Saints here, as the starting O-Line was what we saw. It was Taliese Fuaga, Nick Saldiveri, Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz and Trevor Penning, while the backup unit was Landon Young, Shane Lemieux, Lucas Patrick, Kyle Hergel and Oli Udoh. The third-string unit was Justin Herron, Nouri Nouili, Sincere Haynesworth, Mark Evans and Josiah Ezirim. Dallin Holker ran primarily with the first team.
Defensively, New Orleans played in base. Cam Jordan, Khalen Saunders, Nathan Shepherd and Carl Granderson were along the line with Pete Werner, Demario Davis and Willie Gay Jr. were at linebacker. Paulson Adebo and Marshon Lattimore were on the outside with Johnathan Abram and Tyrann Mathieu at safety. Jaylan Ford got some reps in with the first team.
Second team defensive looks included Payton Turner, Bryan Bresee, Khristian Boyd and Chase Young with Khaleke Hudson, D'Marco Jackson and Anfernee Orji at linebacker. Kool-Aid McKinstry and Alontae Taylor were at corner with Will Harris and Jordan Howden on the back end.
QUARTERBACK PERFORMANCE
Here's how each quarterback finished on the day, with all of it coming in two separate team drills. Jake Haener was ahead of Spencer Rattler today.
- Derek Carr: 4/5, INT (1/1, 3/4)
- Jake Haener: 2/3 (0/1, 2/2)
- Spencer Rattler: 0/3 (0/1, 0/2)
- Nathan Peterman: 1/1 (0/0, 1/1)
DEREK CARR'S DAY
FIRST TEAM PERIOD: Derek Carr's first series saw him throw only one pass, as the first play was a toss to Alvin Kamara to the left that got blown up by Willie Gay Jr. and Carl Granderson. The next one was a play action rollout to the right that he connected underneath with Foster Moreau. Willie Gay Jr. made the tackle, which looked to be for a loss.
The third play was a run to the right with Alvin Kamara that saw him get to the second level. Trevor Penning made a good block on the play. They tried Kamara again in the middle on the next one, but he ran into the Nathan Shepherd wall. The final play of the series was a short left run with Jamaal Williams that saw Khristian Boyd and Isaiah Foskey in on the stop.
SECOND TEAM PERIOD: The first play was one to forget for Carr, as he was picked off over the middle by Demario Davis. It was actually a pick-six that was intended for Rashid Shaheed. Pete Werner was also in the area with Davis, and on the rep Trevor Penning had a solid rep against Carl Granderson. Carr came back to find Shaheed on a short hookup on the right sideline despite a small tip from Granderson. Jamaal Williams got a run to the left following that that Granderson stopped.
For the fourth play, Alvin Kamara went in motion to the right and they hit him with a screen play that both Carl Granderson and Willie Gay Jr. were able to snub out. The final play was a short completion over the middle to Jamaal Williams off play action, with Isaiah Foskey beating Penning and likely drawing a holding call in the process.
JAKE HAENER'S DAY
Haener got two reps on the opening series, with the first play being a James Robinson run to the right and the lone pass attempt was off of play action. He went for Michael Jacobson, but Anfernee Orji nearly had the pick and would have been credited with a pass breakup. His second series saw him complete a pass to Jordan Mims for a short gain underneath and a dump-off short left to Mims on the third play. The middle play was a middle run out of shotgun to Robinson that saw Khristian Boyd and Payton Tuner combined for a tackle for loss.
SPENCER RATTLER'S DAY
Rattler's first series started with a middle run with Jordan Mims, with Anfernee Orji stuffing it up for a loss. He went on a rollout left for the next one that was intended for Michael Jacobson to the left, but he dropped it. His second series saw him start in shotgun and try a short right pass to Dallin Holker that was broken up by Niko Lalos at the line. He tried a pass attempt again on his final play, trying Mason Tipton short to the left that was broken up by Shemar Jean-Charles.
NATHAN PETERMAN'S DAY
Peterman came in to run two plays after Rattler in each team series. The first series saw him have two handoffs, one to the left for a short gain with Mims and then a run inside with Jacob Kibodi that saw Zander Horvath throw a nice block on Jaylan Ford. His other two reps had Kibodi run to the right with Jack Heflin getting the stop and the last one was one of the biggest plays of the day with a deep left sideline connection to A.T. Perry working against Rico Payton.
LAGNIAPPE
I focused primarily on the Saints defense during position specific drills, while Ross Jackson honed in on the offense. We all saw special teams and team drills.
- The practice venue is quite spacious for the Saints to work in. UC-Irvine has double fields that offer a bit more space than what we normally are used to, at least that's the vibe early on. Each position group had tons of space to work with during their position specific drills.
- Dennis Allen made the defense do about two minutes of up-downs to begin their work. This was the first time we've seen it in quite some time, maybe ever, but Allen said it's something he and the Saints have done since Gregg Williams was around.
- Cam Jordan made it a point to pull the defense together after the up-downs and gave a bit of a speech to them.
- Willie Gay Jr. was one of the biggest standouts in practice today. I thought he looked great and was all over the place making plays.
- There was a moment where Alontae Taylor was giving some pointers/coaching to Kool-Aid McKinstry. It's unclear as to what was said, but it was good see Taylor in a spot to be able to do that.
- We're still seeing motion as a main staple in the Klint Kubiak offense. Four of the first plays Derek Carr ran in team featured it.
- Blake Grupe went 8-of-8 on the day, which is a great start to camp. New Orleans had some interesting wrinkles they worked on during the field goal attempts, showing that they're at least thinking of different scenarios that could happen during the game.
- Here's Lou Hedley's charted punting times from today, as he starting very strong and then had a few shanks. Each punt was from the team's own 35-yard-line. Times were: 4.78, 4.56, 4.92, 4.75, 3.43, 3.40, 3.69, 4.75, 4.06, 4.41, 4.40, 4.60. The second to last punt was to the 15-yard-line and one of his best boots of the day.
- Punt returning duties fell on Rashid Shaheed, Jermaine Jackson and Mason Tipton, while Taysom Hill, Johnathan Abram and Jordan Howden all served as the person protector.
- Alvin Kamara reinforced his desire to retire with the Saints today, and as we've discussed previously, the issue is more about next season. He showed up for his teammates and plans to operate business as usual. He mentioned that there really hasn't been many talks for the past couple of months, but he's committed right now. He also wasn't trying to be out of any money too. He said, "I’m not stupid. I’m not trying to give money up. I’m here to get some money." He also said that he's not chasing anything that's outlandish or off-putting, but just doing his duty.
- Cam Jordan revealed that he got hurt against the Falcons last year and wasn't the same afterwards, but was strong for the first 10 weeks. On having anything left in the tank, he said, “You’ll see. Why talk about it when you can be about it.”
