Saints Training Camp: Notes and Observations from Day 18

The amount of training camp practices left for the Saints are dwindling, as there's two more in the week before the team matches up with the Chargers.

Author:
John Hendrix
Publish date:
Aug 22, 2022 2:14 PM EDT

In this story:

New Orleans Saints

The Saints went back to work on Monday from their team facility, as they face their final practices of training camp. They'll have two more for this week and a team walkthrough before hosting the Chargers on Friday. Things started on the inside and moved outside after team stretching. Here's everything that went down at the team's 18th practice.

TRAINING CAMP RECAPS: Day 17 (Superdome) | Day 16 (Green Bay) | Day 15 (Green Bay) | Day 14 | Day 13 | Day 12 | Day 11 | Day 10 | Day 9 | Day 8 | Day 7 | Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

ATTENDANCE: The Saints were missing 12 players from practice on Monday. Among those not spotted included Taysom Hill, Michael Thomas, Kevin White, Marshon Lattimore, Dwayne Washington, P.J. Williams, Chase Hansen, Cesar Ruiz, Taco Charlton, Landon Young, James Hurst, and Adam Trautman. Pete Werner and Alontae Taylor were spotted doing individual drills off to the side with a trainer.

MICHAEL THOMAS UPDATE: "He'll be back out here as soon as he's ready to go," said Dennis Allen said after practice regarding an update on the severity of his hamstring injury.

WALKTHROUGH LOOKS: New Orleans rolled out their nickel formation during walkthroughs on defense. Cam Jordan, David Onyemata, Shy Tuttle, and Carl Granderson were along the defensive line, with Demario Davis and Nephi Sewell at linebacker. Paulson Adebo and Bradley Roby were at corner, with Tyrann Mathieu and Marcus Maye at safety. Subs included Kaden Elliss, Jon Bostic, Marcus Davenport, Zack Baun, Payton Turner, Albert Huggins, Kentavius Street, and Tanoh Kpassagnon.

On offense, the Saints had the same look as Sunday's practice in the Superdome on the line with Trevor Penning, Andrus Peat, Erik McCoy, Calvin Throckmorton, and Ryan Ramczyk. Jameis Winston took first team reps, and he also did some team drill work. Subs and rotational players included Kirk Merritt, Nick Vannett, Mark Ingram, J.P. Holtz, Adam Prentice, Tre'Quan Smith, Alvin Kamara, Juwan Johnson, Chris Olave, Marquez Callaway, and Jarvis Landry.

KIRK MERRITT: He's working exclusively with the running back group, something he was informed of after the Packers game. We'll see what happens here, and it's not uncommon to see this for the Saints. This is similar to what happened with Ty Montgomery. Merritt said after practice today that he hasn't taken a handoff since 2015, but is willing to do whatever he needs to help the team.

DEFENSE SHINES: The Saints defense definitely won the day on Monday. They were strong in red zone drills and in the two-minute series. They're definitely in a groove it seems like. Whether or not the first team defense gets work against the Chargers remains to be seen. Perhaps one of the strongest things out of them is having more adequate depth than they've had in the past.

7-ON-7 NOTES: Defensively, the Saints rolled out Paulson Adebo, Eric Wilson, Demario Davis, Tyrann Mathieu, Bradley Roby, Marcus Maye, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Kaden Elliss also rotated in. Jameis Winston went 3-of-4 in his work. He hit a swing pass to Alvin Kamara to start, Adam Prentice on a check down, and a crosser to Jarvis Landry. The third play was his incompletion, which was intended for Jarvis Landry. He tried to make a one-handed attempt on the catch, and it was nearly picked by Demario Davis.

Andy Dalton finished 3-of-4 as well, hitting passes to Dai'Jean Dixon on a medium slant, Tre'Quan Smith on a short curl route, and Juwan Johnson. The hookup to Johnson was a deep hookup down the seam. After hitting his first three, the final pass for Dalton couldn't connect with Marquez Callaway on an out route. It was good coverage by Quenton Meeks too.

Ian Book hit all four of his passes, connecting with Kirk Merritt out of the backfield in the flats to start. He put a good spin move on Zack Baun to get some yards after the catch. He also hit passes to Marquez Callaway on a curl, Tre'Quan Smith on the sideline, and Juwan Johnson on the sideline.

TEAM DRILL HIGHLIGHTS: Jameis Winston participated in three separate series of team drills. His first series saw him get picked by C.J. Gardner-Johnson off play action on the second play. He did a good job of avoiding the rush and stepping up in the pocket, and Gardner-Johnson just made the better play. The final play saw Payton Turner get past Trevor Penning for a sack.

Andy Dalton went 1-of-1 during his first series, hitting a sideline pass to Chris Olave on the fourth play. The first play was a run attempt to Kirk Merritt, which Malcolm Roach blew up on the outside. Kentavius Street had a tackle for loss on the next rush play, which went to Alvin Kamara inside. The offense had another negative run play on the Deonte Harty jet sweep. Credit Josh Black with the nice angle and tackle for loss.

Ian Book went 1-of-2 in his work. His first pass was hurried and went into the dirt after Kentavius Street provided pressure from the inside. He'd hit his next pass to Rashid Shaheed off play action and booting right. Zack Baun had a good run stop on Tony Jones Jr. on the ensuing play, and Kirk Merritt had another rush attempt off the right side that got him into the second level.

The second team series shifted to the red zone. Jameis Winston went 0-of-2, as the team worked from the 5-yard-line. His passes went to Marquez Callaway on a fade route that was overthrown, and then missed Jarvis Landry after scrambling to evade pressure from Malcolm Roach and Carl Granderson. Roach finished the series with a run stuff on an inside zone to Mark Ingram.

Dalton went 0-of-2 in his series. Things started good, as he had a designed boot to the right side and got into the end zone. He rolled right on the next play, and the touchdown pass was dropped by Kawaan Baker. He tried Jarvis Landry on the next play, which was a drop just off his hands in the flats. The offense tried a Tony Jones Jr. run on the inside on the final play, which was blown up by Kaden Elliss.

Ian Book finished 1-of-3 in his series. Malcolm Roach once again had a good run stop to start the drive. Book hit Marquez Callaway for a touchdown on a play that was allowed to continue despite Kaden Elliss putting a spin move on Derrick Kelly to get a sack. Book tried Dai'Jean Dixon twice on fade routes working against Quenton Meeks, and he ended up breaking up both passes.

Winston got another series of work in team drills that started at the team's 48-yard-line, finishing 1-of-3. Jarvis Landry had a drop over the middle to start, while Nephi Sewell had a good run stop on Alvin Kamara on the second play. He completed a pass to Jarvis Landry off the short left side with Cam Jordan providing pressure. His final pass was an incompletion deep to Deonte Harty, with Malcolm Roach providing the pressure that could have been a sack.

Andy Dalton went 3-of-4 in his series, hooking up with Chris Olave near the sideline working against Paulson Adebo for an intermediate gain. Dalton then found Dai'Jean Dixon on a comeback route near the sideline. He followed that up by hitting Marquez Callaway on a crossing route, and his final throw went out of bounds. Vincent Gray would have had the sack on the play.

Ian Book went 3-of-4 for his series, hitting Kawaan Baker on a slant to start. The next pass was a wide receiver screen to Deonte Harty, which went for a negative gain due to a Josh Black tackle for loss. He overthrew Rashid Shaheed on a deep left sideline pass attempt on the next play, and hit Jarvis Landry for a short gain on the final one. However, Eric Wilson would have been credited with a sack.

The final work was in the two-minute offense. The situation was there was 1:30 on the clock and no timeouts before the half. The defense stopped the offense in both of their series.

Andy Dalton went 4-of-7 during his work. Things started out good with him hitting Chris Olave on a curl route for a first down. Paulson Adebo ended up breaking up a pass in the flats to Nick Vannett at the last second in what looked to be a catch at first. Dalton went back to Vannett on a similar play, and then hit Jarvis Landry on a curl route on third down to move the chains. Olave had a pass go in and out of his hands on the first down play, and then Bradley Roby broke up a crossing route attempt to Marquez Callaway. Demario Davis ended the drive by stopping Lucas Krull for a minimal gain on third down.

Ian Book's final series saw him finish 3-of-5. He hit short passes to Rashid Shaheed, Tony Jones Jr. in the flats, and then Kawaan Baker on a curl route. Kentavius Street had a pass break up on an underneath throw. Abram Smith was stopped on the third down play on the inside zone. Book was given a couple of extra downs, as a deep sideline hookup to Dai'Jean Dixon went off his helmet, and then Tanoh Kpassagnon had a sack on him to close out the day.

TOUGH DAYS: Jameis Winston finished just 1-of-6 today in three separate series of team drills. Dennis Allen said after practice that he was a 'little bit rusty', but was good to have back out. off as he works his way back. Jarvis Landry also had a few drops today, which seems a bit uncharacteristic for him. These things happen. It's not a reason to be concerned.

PLAY OF THE DAY: This went to C.J. Gardner-Johnson for his one-handed interception on Jameis Winston. He did a great job of reading Winston on the play, as the pass attempt was going to Jarvis Landry off play action. Gardner-Johnson just jumped up and extended his arm to make the pick look easy.

NOT READY YET: Marcus Davenport is on the right track, according to Dennis Allen. However, he's not ready to go yet. It's something that we will have to pay close attention to to see if he'll be ready by Week 1.

Allen said, "He's getting better. He's kind of incorporating himself back into the team activities and things. So, that's been a positive. I think there's still some hurdles that we got to get over for him. But certainly everything's progressing in the right direction."