Saints Training Camp Day 3 Notes and Observations
METAIRIE — It was the first day for fans to be in attendance for Saints training camp on Friday, and it brought them some nice action from practice. It was a packed out spectacle over on Airline Drive at the team's practice facility, and here's all of our notes and observations from the third day.
TRAINING CAMP RECAPS: Day 1 | Day 2
Saints Training Camp Notes and Observations from Day 3
John Hendrix
ATTENDANCE
Trevor Penning returned to the field after missing on Thursday. He was participating in drills, seeing some action at left tackle. Players who left practice early were also back in the mix, which includes Khalen Saunders (illness), Keith Kirkwood (heat exhaustion), and Shaq Davis (heat exhaustion).
Ryan Ramczyk and Cesar Ruiz were planned absences for the team, as Dennis Allen said after practice. Trai Turner went down with an injury during practice, and it ended up being a torn quad that will knock him out for the season. Turner ended up having to get carted off the field, and was reportedly on crutches after practice. It's an unfortunate part of the game, and he was ready to compete.
STARTING LOOKS
The Saints had an offensive line that consisted of Trevor Penning, Andrus Peat, Erik McCoy, Calvin Throckmorton, and Storm Norton to start. Later on, Peat got some work at left tackle while James Hurst kicked in at left guard.
For the defense, the team rolled out a nickel look that had Cam Jordan, Khalen Saunders, Bryan Bresee, and Carl Granderson on the defensive line. Pete Werner and Demario Davis were at linebacker, with Bradley Roby at nickel. Paulson Adebo was on the outside opposite of Marshon Lattimore, while Marcus Maye and Tyrann Mathieu was at safety.
QUARTERBACK PERFORMANCE AND BREAKDOWN
We got to see an extra round of team drills in addition to 7-on-7 on Friday. In 7-on-7, Derek Carr went 3-of-4, Jameis Winston went 4-of-4, Taysom Hill went 1-of-2, and Jake Haener completed both of his attempts. For team drills, Carr finished 6-of-7, Hill do not throw during his series, Winston finished 3-of-5, and Haener went 3-of-6.
7-ON-7: Michael Thomas was the first target for Derek Carr. Marshon Lattimore made a great pass breakup on the slant plant to get things started. Carr hit Jamaal Williams in the flats on the next play, followed by another short completion to Tre'Quan Smith on a crossing route, and finished with another short hookup to Juwan Johnson on a curl.
For Winston, he hit Keith Kirkwood on a comeback to start things on a nice hookup. He then hit Kendre Miller on an angle route on a pass where Miller made a good adjustment a little behind him to get the pass. Zack Baun also had good coverage on the play. Winston hit Tre'Quan Smith on a curl route on the next play, and finished out with a completion over the middle to Eno Benjamin off playaction.
During Taysom Hill's series, he Rashid Shaheed to start and missed a deep seam pass to Jesse James. It was a little overthrown, and would have been a big hookup if it hit. The play before saw Bryan Edwards commit a false start, and he was substituted out after the error.
Jake Haener's reps saw completion to Kendre Miller in the flats and a deep sideline hookup to Lynn Bowden Jr. Alontae Taylor almost had the pass breakup on the Miller pass, working in the slot.
TEAM DRILL NO. 1: The first play of Derek Carr's series was a good one, well worth being put in the Play of the Day category, so more on that shortly. The other plays for his first series were runs with Jamaal Williams, Kendre Miller, and Alvin Kamara. Williams had a nice run in the middle, and Kamara's was an outside run left. We're starting to see a lot more of him running outside, so that could be a really good sign.
Taysom Hill came in for the next series. He did two zone reads during his series, one to the left coming after a Jamaal Williams run while the other went to the right after Eno Benjamin was stuffed inside.
Jameis Winston did handoffs for the first few plays of his series, which didn't go anywhere. Kirk Merritt went outside on the first play, then Ellis Merriweather had back-to-back carries in which he got shut down. Ty Summers made a good stop on him for the second one. The lone pass was a backshoulder throw to James Washington. The timing was just a little bit off.
TEAM DRILL NO. 2: Carr went 3-of-3 on this series. He started things with an Eno Benjamin pass to the flats for a short gain. Benjamin got another rushing attempt outside for a short gain on the next play. The action after the play go a little animated for a short second between Trevor Penning and Carl Granderson. Carr then hit James Washington on a curl working against Jordan Howden, followed by a short completion to Foster Moreau.
Winston hit both of his passes on his series, with the first hookup going to Chris Olave that was worth mentioning as a play of the day (more on that shortly). Jamaal Williams had an inside run on the next play. Kendre Miller caught a short pass on a rollout for the next play, and closed out the series with a short outside run.
Haener got things started on his series by hitting Bryan Edwards on a crossing route working against Adrian Frye. Kirk Merritt had a rushing attempt that Niko Lalos stopped quickly alongside Isaac Yiadom. Ellis Merriweather got a short gain on a rushing attempt off the left side, and the second pass intended for A.T. Perry was a bit behind him on a deep in route.
TEAM DRILL NO. 3: Carr started the series trying to hookup with Michael Thomas working against Zack Baun in the flats, but the pass was a little low. Carl Granderson beat Trevor Penning on the next play to force Carr to take off with the ball. The next play was a screen pass to Kendre Miller and then his series finished with a nice intermediate hookup to Chris Olave.
Winston's first pass was picked off by D'Marco Jackson after it was in and out of the hands of Rashid Shaheed over the middle. The next pass was incomplete to James Washington, and then Kirk Merritt's run attempt was stopped for a loss by Nathan Shepherd. The final play for Winston saw him hookup with Michael Thomas over the middle on a nice play.
The final team period saw Haener throw on all of his plays. He missed the first two, as the initial pass to Bryan Edwards on a curl route was dropped. The second one was a pass breakup as he was throwing by Tanoh Kpassagnon. Haener came back to hit Lynn Bowden Jr. for a short connection with Niko Lalos providing some pressure. The final play was to Ellis Merriweather in the flats for a short gain.
PLAYS OF THE DAY
Any worry for Trevor Penning was quickly squelched after he had a huge play to kick off team drills. Derek Carr found Alvin Kamara on a screen play off the left side, and Penning led the way for him to head to the end zone.
The other play was from a hookup between Jameis Winston and Chris Olave. Winston fit the ball into a tight window with excellent coverage from Alontae Taylor. Olave caught a nicely thrown pass and displayed some nice control to secure the catch.
GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
- For the third straight day, the Saints defense had a takeaway. The defense got their first interception of camp from D'Marco Jackson during team drills off a Jameis Winston pass intended for Rashid Shaheed that went in and out of his hands.
- Taysom Hill was with the quarterbacks today, getting some of the team drill reps ahead of of Jake Haener and Jameis Winston.
- Wil Lutz had the first missed kick of training camp. He and Blake Grupe were perfect coming in from minicamp. Lutz was wide right on one of his kicks from 47 yards out, but finished 6-of-7 on the day. One thing to point out, not that it necessarily had to do with anything, is that Lou Hedley was the holder today.
- Alontae Taylor was working in the slot during team drills, but it was mostly with the third-string look defense. Still, it's worth noting that he has been used there.
- Lewis Kidd was getting some work at right tackle during the third series of team drills with Winston at quarterback.
- Payton Turner continues to impress and he said that he felt great on where he's at after practice. He's someone that has been hard to ignore. He had two instances in team drills where he beat left tackles Landon Young and Scott Lashley. He also got some good praise for some of the lane work he was during on kickoff coverage. It'll be interesting to see if this continues when the pads come on.
- Rashid Shaheed said after practice that he and Chris Olave are constantly working to get better. Shaheed mentioned that he watches Olave every to day to see what he can emulate for his game.
- Juwan Johnson referred to the tight end room as The Ninja Turtles, with Jimmy Graham serving as Master Splinter. He identified himself as Donatello, for those interested.
- Khalen Saunders said one of the things that drew him to New Orleans was the attacking style of defense the Saints run. He has lost some weight and is playing in the 315-318-pound range. He's listed at 324 pounds.
- We've talked a little about Joe Woods' impact on the secondary. Paulson Adebo said both he and Marcus Robertson have brought an energy to the room and have been very detailed-oriented. Adebo says that they have a good understanding of things and how to implement it.
