Saints Training Camp: Notes and Observations from Day 20

The Saints wrapped up their training camp practices for the week on Wednesday, as the indoor session featured mainly team drills.

Author:
John Hendrix
Publish date:
Aug 24, 2022 2:27 PM EDT

In this story:

New Orleans Saints

Wednesday wraps up Saints training camp practices for the week. The team will have a walkthrough tomorrow, but that's it for the media's look at the team before Friday's preseason game against the Chargers. New Orleans was in shells today, and here's all of our notes and observations from the day.

TRAINING CAMP RECAPS: Day 19 | Day 18 | 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 got a lot of players back at practice on Wednesday, as the only player not spotted was Michael Thomas. Cesar Ruiz was one of the main players to return.

Pete Werner, Dwayne Washington, Chase Hansen, Landon Young, James Hurst, Adam Trautman, and Carl Granderson were among those spotted, but not participating. Granderson was one of several players to work off to the side along with Marshon Lattimore, P.J. Williams, and Alontae Taylor.

WALKTHROUGHS: The Saints rolled out a 4-3 look to start the day, but quickly shifted to nickel. Cam Jordan, Shy Tuttle, David Onyemata, and Payton Turner were along the defensive line, with Kaden Elliss, Demario Davis, and Eric Wilson at linebacker. Paulson Adebo and Bradley Roby were at corner, with Marcus Maye and Tyrann Mathieu at safety. Subs included C.J. Gardner-Johnson (slot), Nephi Sewell, Kentavius Street, Malcolm Roach, Taco Charlton, and Tanoh Kpassagnon. Marshon Lattimore, Pete Werner, P.J. Williams, and Chase Hansen observed.

On offense, the Saints had Trevor Penning, Andrus Peat, Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz, and Ryan Ramczyk along the offensive line. Ramczyk participated in team drills. Rotational players included Tre'Quan Smith, Deonte Harty, Adam Prentice, Marquez Callaway, Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, Mark Ingram, Taysom Hill, Nick Vannett, Forrest Lamp, and Juwan Johnson. Dwayne Washington, James Hurst, and Landon Young observed.

SIMULATED NOISE: The Saints rolled in some loud music during team drills today. This was to help with the silent count and have both the offense and defense navigate through louder noise and work on communication. Dennis Allen said after practice that he thought they both did a good job.

TEAM DRILLS: No 7-on-7 looks today, so we got plenty of team drill action. Jameis Winston finished 12-of-16 on the day. Winston started really hot, hitting his first eight passes. He went 1-of-1 in the first series, which featured mainly runs. His lone pass was a good back shoulder hookup to Marquez Callaway off the left sideline. Mark Ingram had a pretty good on the fifth play, but the Saints defense was pretty strong against the runs to him and Alvin Kamara.

Andy Dalton went 0-of-1 in his first series, which once again featured mainly runs in the six-play drive. Marcus Davenport had a good run stop on the first running attempt to Kirk Merritt, and then Abram Smith had a medium gain inside on the second play. Merritt had a great outside run after a cutback, doing a good job of evading a potential tackle for loss from Payton Turner. Zack Baun had a run stop on Adam Prentice on the next play. The one pass was overthrown to Rashid Shaheed off play action on the deep post route.

For the second series, Andy Dalton took the first snap and completed his pass to Juwan Johnson off play action in the flats working against Demario Davis for a short gain. Jameis Winston ended up going in after, finishing 5-of-5. He hit Tre'Quan Smith on a crossing route with Shy Tuttle providing pressure, a dump-off to Alvin Kamara that might have ended with a Demario Davis sack, a crosser to Chris Olave over the middle, Johnson again on the sideline for a medium gain, and then a swing pass to Tony Jones Jr. for another medium gain.

On the hookup to Olave, Cam Jordan looked to have the pressure and sack on Winston, but Erik McCoy came across to provide a huge block to help Winston. You could hear the helmets clash on the play. On the Jones Jr. play, there was a small scuffle after the play between Taco Charlton and Trevor Penning. Things didn't escalate, and Dennis Allen said some choice words to get everyone back focused.

Andy Dalton went 3-of-4 in his work, hitting Lucas Krull on a short curl route to start. He hit Chris Olave on the sideline on an out route for a medium gain, and then found Tre'Quan Smith on the comeback route. His last pass was an overthrow to Krull on a crossing route.

Jameis Winston came in for the final two snaps, going 2-of-2. He hit Merritt on a swing route that was stopped by Kaden Elliss, and then found Marquez Callaway on an intermediate hookup on a curl route.

The third series of team drills focused on work in the red zone. The first team defense was strong, holding Winston to just being 1-of-3 and keeping them out of the end zone. Each quarterback started on the 15-yard-line and ran off six plays, with the yardage increasing from the 15, 13, 10, 7, 5, and 3-yard line.

Cam Jordan and Kaden Elliss had a tackle for loss on Alvin Kamara on the first running play. Paulson Adebo had a pass breakup in the end zone working against Chris Olave with Nephi Sewell also in the area. Winston hit a curl to Jarvis Landry on the next play from the 10-yard-line. There were two Mark Ingram runs (run right and outside zone) on the next plays, which saw Malcolm Roach and Tanoh Kpassagnon each have a tackle for loss on separate plays. The final play of the series saw a pass to the back of the end zone go off Nick Vannett's hands.

Dalton's drive saw him finish 3-of-4. He hit Kirk Merritt out of the backfield with Taco Charlton providing the pressure on the play. Kaden Elliss made a nice tackle to ensure it didn't go for a big gain. Eric Wilson had a run stop on a Tony Jones Jr. run on the following play, and then Merritt got a screen that was stopped for a loss by Zack Baun. Dalton tried Dai'Jean Dixon on a fade route in the end zone from the 7-yard-line, but it was overthrown. Malcolm Roach had another run stop in the series, this time on Abram Smith from the 5-yard-line. However, the offense got the last laugh, as they punched it in from the 3-yard-line after Dalton found a wide open Rashid Shaheed over the middle in the end zone.

The final team drill worked with the clock. The situation was 1:15 left, and each quarterback started their series at the 35-yard-line. Neither team was able to punch it into the end zone, but Wil Lutz hit field goals from 51 and 38 to put points up on the board to close out each series.

Winston was up first and went 3-of-5. He hit Marquez Callaway on a curl to start, and then Alvin Kamara underneath. The big play of the drive came after Winston hooked up with Juwan Johnson on an out route near the sideline to put the team at the defense's 36-yard-line. Tony Jones Jr. had a nice run on the next play, and then the two misses from Winston came.

The first miss was a deep shot over the middle to Tre'Quan Smith that was nearly picked by Paulson Adebo. It was tipped up in the air by Smith, and Adebo just missed getting it. The final play came with 20 seconds and was to Olave an out route that was incomplete. Demario Davis was there to provide the pressure. Adebo was a little shaken up after the series, but appeared to be okay.

Andy Dalton finished 3-of-6 on his series. He missed a deep sideline hookup to Deonte Harty on the first play, which was a bit overthrown. He hit Kawaan Baker on a curl on the next play, and then Brian Allen broke up the pass to Dai'Jean Dixon on the left sideline. Dixon got open on the next play over the middle for a big hookup. Dalton then hit Deonte Harty on a slant, but missed the last one to Lucas Krull deep down the left sideline.

STOCK UP: Marquez Callaway and Juwan Johnson were two of the players who stood out the most to me on Wednesday. Johnson is someone who seems to be getting a bit more comfortable in the offense, and has benefitted the most from not having Taysom Hill and Adam Trautman consistently in the lineup. It's no secret that Callaway is facing an important game on Friday, and it was good to see him heavily involved on Wednesday.

CLUTCH LUTZ: Wil Lutz didn't miss a single kick today out of nine attempts, and he finishes up 49-of-51 in training camp. We've seen everything we've needed to out of him, and this is very encouraging as we get into Week 1 of the season.

PRESEASON REPS STILL A MYSTERY: Dennis Allen didn't reveal much regarding what preseason action would look like regarding some of the starters. What we do know from talking to players like Jameis Winston and Cam Jordan is that they'll be ready if they're called upon. A lot has been made about the ned to play and citing what happened with the Packers last year, but they turned out okay after early season struggles. Still, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.