Saints Give Fans 3 Huge Reasons for Optimism after Dominating Jaguars Joint Practice

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The New Orleans Saints hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday for a joint practice session.

With Saints fans in attendance, the Black and Gold put on a show and showed a lot of promise. The Jaguars were 13-4 last season, with a solid offense and one of the best defenses in the league, and the Saints outperformed them.

With many of the Saints’ starters not participating in the preseason game against Jacksonville on Saturday, this was a good opportunity to see how the Saints’ starters would fare against one of the league’s better teams.

Here are three key observations that should excite Who Dat Nation.

Run Game Was Promising

Aug 13, 2026; Metairie, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints running back Travis Etienne Jr. (3) runs against Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun (23) during a joint scrimmage during at Ochsner Sports Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

One of the biggest positives of the day was the run game.

Travis Etienne Jr handled a lot of the first-team work. Alvin Kamara worked with the first and second groups, and Audric Estime was the third back.

Etienne set the tone with two productive runs from the shotgun. One of the things I wanted to see was how well the offensive line would play against the top run defense in the league last season, and they did more than meet the task at hand.

“Credit to the O-line, those big guys up front,” Tyler Shough said. “I mean, it was unbelievable, especially back-to-back periods multiple times. There's not much rest time for those guys, and they're not getting subbed out like the D-line either.” Our extensive story with Shough can be found here.

Going Deep

The long ball stood out today.

The first long ball came from Zach Wilson to Bub Means for a touchdown.

The second long touchdown came on a wide-open bomb off a perfectly run wheel route for a 55-yard touchdown pass thrown by Shough. Chris Olave caught it, which was one of several big-time catches he had.

Shough said he did not enter practice determined to force the deep ball. He saw what Jacksonville gave him, and he took them.

“Whatever they were presenting, I was going to take advantage of it,” Shough said.

The third came from Spencer Rattler, who threw a deep touchdown to Bryce Lance in tight coverage in the end zone.

First Team Defense Dominates

The Saints' defense has dominated the first-team offense throughout training camp, and they did the same thing against the Jaguars’ first-team offense.

Julian Blackmon picked off Trevor Lawrence with an interception on his very first pass attempt of the day as he undercut receiver Jakobi Meyers on a throw to the right sideline. Jonas Sanker, Quincy Riley and Kool-Aid McKinstry also had pass breakups.

Riley also made a great tackle on a running back in the flats, but it was late, leading to a traditional joint practice scuffle where both teams had to break it up.

The defensive line had six definite sacks and three more pressures that could have been sacks in a real-game situation, but officials allowed the plays to continue. Chase Young was involved in at least four of those sacks.

Nathan Shepherd had two solo sacks and shared a third sack with Young. Vernon Broughton and Carl Granderson were each in on three of the sacks or potential sacks. Khristian Boyd was in on another.

Training Camp Schedule

Here's the practice schedule for the rest of the week:

- Friday, TBD, Walk-Thru (Closed)
- Saturday, Saints vs. Jaguars, 3:00 p.m., Superdome

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