The Saints concluded their annual mini-camp with a Sunday morning practice at their indoor facility. Both tackle Jammal Brown and running back Reggie Bush returned to action with the team. Running back Pierre Thomas was dressed out, but did not participate in team drills.
Coach Sean Payton said that Thomas had a bruised wrist and his injury was not significant. Bush was held out Saturday as he continues to rehab from off-season surgery, but looked to be near one hundred percent Sunday. Brown left practice Saturday. He was cramping and dehydrating
Linebacker Scott Shanle and corner back Randall Gay did not partake Sunday. Shanle sat out with a strained calf, and Gay rested his sore knee.
The Saints will start really learning the offense and defense at their off-season workouts this week with more Organized Team Activities scheduled. "We'll use up these next eight OTAs as gradual installations which will be exactly how we'll install at training camp," Head coach Sean Payton said.
Wide receiver Marques Colston is coming back strong after off-season surgery. Payton says that he will be full speed when training camp opens in late July.
The Saints Defense looked sharp in down and distance work. Both units are informed of the situation that they are in as the defense tries to stop the offense on the third down and distance and the offense is trying to convert.
New defensive coordinator Greg Williams used both a 4-3 and 3-4 scheme in the drill, and the Saints D did a good job of putting heat on the quarterback. The secondary was in solid position most of the time. "The defense was blitzing a lot. You can really tell the emphasis on putting stress on the quarterback," said the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert.
Hebert said that by his observation the Saints defense got the best of the offense about seventy percent of the time. Saints safety Roman Harper was sent a number of times on a safety blitz, and if the drill had been in full contact Harper would have recorded several sacks.
"They are getting better, but the secondary has to be able to come up with the ball when they have a chance at an interception," Hebert said. Jabari Greer had one interception in the final practice of the weekend, and overall Hebert said that the secondary had four picks and missed chances at four more.
Obviously the influence of Greg Williams is being seen and felt. Payton also feels like his team is in better shape, and that's a big reason for the upbeat practices this weekend.
"It's been our best off-season, just based on the amount of guys that have been here that have made every workout," said Payton. "We're well over 30. We shoot for 40 workouts, which is 90% of them. That's our goal with every player, and we have a good chance this year to really exceed some of the prior years, and I've been pleased with that."
The Cajun Cannon had a lot of good things to say about the mini-camp, and he will give a full review of how he thought the Saints looked on Sports Talk this week on WWL AM & FM and WWL.com.
I asked the Cannon to give me his top performers from this weekend's camp.
"I would say Devery (Henderson) had a very good weekend along with Robert Meachem, and I was really excited about the play of Jabari Greer," Hebert said. Greer led all DB's this weekend with two interceptions.
Hebert went on to praise the consistent play of tight end Billy Miller as he blocked well and made some nice grabs over the weekend. Running back Mike Bell was solid, and Roman Harper looks like he is really picking up Coach Williams' defense -- especially in blitzing situations.
Payton was asked what he thought he got out of his three-day mini-camp. "I mentioned earlier that the mental aspect of it is tremendous because it's a dry run really for what they're going to get in training camp when they do have pads on. Where to be, where to align, the depths, techniques and all the specifics as it pertains to the scheme that we're using on either side of the ball and in the kicking game."
Payton went on to explain what he hoped to accomplish during mini-camp. "Secondly, there are a lot of timing issues that you begin working on right now. We put some new things in every year at this time of the year and take a look at them and see if we like them or not."
E-Mail Story
Print Story
