We recap Thursday's joint practice with the Chargers, as the sole focus for the session was on the offense.
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00:00 Hello everyone, John Hendricks for Saints News Network coming at you with another recap for Saints training camp day 16 joint practices out here with the Chargers. We're out here at Jack R Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa. Just kind of break down some of the action for you today, but before we do, as always, we want to thank Justin Burgess of Ben Pro for sponsoring today's show. Again, if you have a business that's in the greater New Orleans region and need help with employee benefits or health insurance, give my man Justin a call 504-888-8038.
00:28 He will get you taken care of. Tell him John Hendricks sent you. So day 16 Saints training camp out here. See, I'm probably going to pay for not putting some sunscreen on. It was bright and sunny here. It was amazing weather and I look forward to it.
00:45 But you know, it's still a little bit hot. You might see a little bit of sweat trickling down, but that's OK because that's how things roll in the real world. But, you know, looking at practice, look coming in. It was just good to be out here, right?
00:57 You know, I just have a fond memory of just last night being 67 degrees and going outside and just feeling how awesome it was in this morning, getting up, having some coffee outside, the winds blowing.
01:08 It's just a pleasant day out here and we've got some type of hurricane that's coming. So I guess we brought that with us from New Orleans. But talking about Saints football, being serious, let's start with attendance like we always do.
01:19 And some big deals here. Right. And so let's start with who wasn't here. So Taysom Hill still dealing with that oblique strain. He wasn't out here today. Traequan Smith.
01:28 And then we also had Landon Young, Jesse James and then Lynn Bowden Jr. Now, you might say, well, there's some other players that you didn't name that we need to get a little bit more information on.
01:41 So Rasheed Chihi was out here. He's been dealing with that groin injury. Now he wasn't in pads or anything, had his jersey on. So it's encouraging to see him being around here.
01:51 He was one of the first players. Cesar Ruiz, he hurt his shoulder during the game, had it flare up at practice the other day. He was out here working off to the side.
01:59 He also had Andres Peet come back to practice. He was working through, you know, kind of the walkthroughs and he also working in offensive line drills, but nothing in like team.
02:09 So he's working his way back. He was working off the side. DeMario Davis was here. First linebacker and walkthroughs also working off the side.
02:18 So I saying all these things that the Saints are in a spot where they are getting a lot healthier. Kirk Merritt was back today.
02:24 Lucas Crowell was back, guys that we just haven't seen. And then Kendre Miller, probably the best news.
02:29 He was back and, you know, doing drills and such. You know, it wouldn't go far as to say team or anything like that.
02:37 He's dealing with that knee sprain, has a brace on his right knee. And so it was just encouraging sign just to see him in pads.
02:44 So Saints health is trending in the right direction now, again, on Taysom Hill, oblique strain.
02:49 Dennis Allen saying the other day that he was going to be out of practice for about one or two days.
02:53 We'll see what kind of happens there. But getting to the action. So now split it up because you've got a couple of fields in the way things went down on Thursday is that I focused in on the offense.
03:03 And so Ross Jackson focused on the defense. He's going to have his recap on that much later.
03:08 And we're going to flip flop tomorrow. So I'll be watching the defense. And so what I would say offensively, first things first is Chris Alave again.
03:18 Keep talking about him. Keep hyping him up. He's the real deal, folks.
03:22 He's definitely going to take a major leap this year. And he was so good last year. I mean, as a rookie, we've talked about him bulked up five to seven pounds, you know, working on his contested catch part of his game.
03:32 Look, he did in one on ones. He beat Asante Samuel four times. He went up against Asante Samuel. He looked outstanding. Burn him on routes, even getting held, making catches in the process.
03:42 I mean, this guy just looks so good, so comfortable. And we've kind of talked about it on here.
03:47 The chemistry between him and Derek Carr feels like it's probably at the top of it, of everything right now and everything else is secondary.
03:54 And so I think first and foremost, Chris Alave looks really good today so far. And so looking forward to much more from him.
04:03 Don't know if the starters are going to play on Saturday or Sunday because we got all Sunday preseason games.
04:09 Mays to be seen. Carr was asked after practice if he was going to. He doesn't know the plan yet.
04:14 I think we'll get a little bit more insight on that. I wouldn't. I would be shocked if they're going to play.
04:19 But again, we have to see how these things play out. Don't know for sure. But, you know, I think you're going to get a lot more value out of these joint practices because we had like five different team drills today.
04:30 And so you had seven on seven. Then they did team drills, a couple of them.
04:33 Then they worked on, you know, worked on a drive where you had to get, you know, four downs to get a first down, all the types of things, normal stuff.
04:41 You had two minute. You had red zone. I mean, it was all the things that you would expect. And this is not like a Olay, you know, type of fest or anything like that.
04:51 People were hitting out here. This is padded practice. This is about as real as it gets because it's two teams.
04:58 Now, tempers were held in check for the most part. Nobody really flared up. You got some jawing back and forth.
05:03 That's common. You know, you're just going to see those types of things. But overall, real good temperament, at least on the offensive side.
05:09 I know people are saying, oh, Trevor Penning, we're waiting on speaking to him. I thought he did pretty good in pass protection today.
05:14 I think that's an area where he's getting better at and better each day. And most of the coaches, they tend to agree there.
05:21 So as far as it goes, you know, I'd look at some of the things to take away from here. One on ones were just exciting.
05:28 I think after today, a guy like Kwon Baker, his stock is kind of going up a little bit for me.
05:34 This is easily his best training camp practice I think ever since he's come into the league and covered the team a pretty long time.
05:41 But he's heating up at the right time. I'm interested to see if he can keep this going.
05:45 You know, look, wide receiver four to six, presumably, I think they still keep six.
05:50 Depends on special teams and how that plays out. They could go five, though.
05:54 But, you know, I think he's a guy, if he can put a surge there, I mean, he's been around this program for a while.
05:59 He understands he's played special teams. He's making some catches. He looks pretty good today.
06:04 Just somebody to watch. And I think Brian Edwards is another one.
06:07 Look, again, I said this is a guy that was kind of a little bit more disappointing to start off, but he had a really good week last week.
06:16 He did pretty good in the preseason. He had another pretty good day today.
06:19 He's somebody I think that's starting to come along and pick up a little bit more.
06:22 And so that's that's always good when you see players that ascend versus the guys that just start hot and then fizzle out.
06:29 Like we saw that a good bit. But, you know, look, I really liked Winston in two minutes.
06:34 I liked Carr did pretty well in two minutes. You know, Blake Groupie looked pretty good, too, on the day.
06:41 You know, the vantage point, I wish I don't think the goalposts are still there.
06:47 I have to get a picture of it and send it or try to keep it in recap.
06:50 So you got the long goalpost and then he has this much of a goalpost to look at.
06:54 Like, I mean, it's very, very, very much smaller sample size to kick.
06:59 And he did pretty well on it. You know, we got officials out here. They called a couple of one of them was wide right.
07:05 So I definitely agree. One of the kicks was wide right. One of the other ones that they ruled was was no good.
07:12 I thought it was good myself. And so I'm going to give it to him on that aspect.
07:15 But, you know, I think overall, I think the Chargers defense pose an interesting problem for the Saints because there are three, four defense.
07:23 And similar to the Green Bay last year, you don't play many three, four defenses in your season.
07:30 It's just not as common. And so I think that's great practice for this team offensively.
07:36 I'm not going to tell you that they look great. Right. I think they were OK.
07:39 They had some false start penalties. They had a few things here and there. Drives it kept alive by flags,
07:46 whether it was illegal contact or defensive pass interference and such.
07:50 You know, there was a point where the first several drives just didn't look that good.
07:55 And this is two teams filling each other out. And so why I say that and bring that up is you might hear some people say,
08:02 well, the offense looked like garbage or the defense looked like garbage. I'm going to reserve judgment till tomorrow.
08:07 Now I'm going to watch the defense. Ross is going to watch the offense if I didn't tell you or if you forgot.
08:12 And so I would expect after they watch the film, make the corrections that we should see a better performance out of each unit.
08:19 I know there were some splash plays, some highlights and things here and there.
08:22 But I would expect to see both sides have a better outing tomorrow.
08:27 And then that should lead to a little bit better results. But, you know, look, Alvin Kamara got in for a four yard touchdown.
08:33 Jameis Winston connecting to Kwon Baker for a touchdown. I mean, I think there was just a few good moments here and there.
08:39 You know, there was some thumping going on. Michael Thomas looked good.
08:42 I mean, overall, I thought Jimmy Graham going through my notes, he was made a couple of good catches, especially in seven on seven.
08:49 You know, a few people amped and such. But overall on the day, look, I think it was a good practice.
08:55 I mean, this experience is valuable, of course, because you're going to have the Texans next week.
09:01 You had two sides of the field. I mean, I don't know if I can do it because of Zoom, but I'll try because why not?
09:08 So give you a little bit of look and perspective. And yeah, we're going to go on to go.
09:12 We're going to do stuff because, you know, we don't have any special agenda or anything format.
09:16 So I don't know if you could tell by that goalpost, but how short it is compared to an actual goalpost,
09:22 which probably is going to be on your other side. I mean, you can't really see.
09:25 But this is just a mini, mini, mini, mini, mini goalpost. So not a lot of stuff going on here.
09:34 So that's what I was talking about for Blake Groupie. But the scene out here was really nice.
09:38 You got the action from fans in the stand. You know, there were some Saints fan out, Saints fans out here.
09:44 They got some special invites, some in the stands. You had to be a season ticket holder to get all that.
09:48 But look, I had fun today. I love this thing. I love this job. I love going and covering this scene.
09:55 I'm only looking forward for more out of it. You know, we got to talk to Cam after practice,
09:59 Tyron Matthew, Derek Carr, Michael Thomas talked. Ross will have that interview up soon.
10:05 And then, of course, DA will get more of those guys tomorrow. But again, filling things out.
10:11 Nothing huge to take away other than, let's say, Chris Alaba and a lot of these players being back.
10:16 We'll reserve judgment. We'll have more of a tomorrow. And, of course, we'll be back here tomorrow to talk about it.
10:22 Hopefully, we got a game to worry about on Sunday and not have to worry about all this other craziness with the storms,
10:29 Hurricane Hillary. Yeah, I just can't believe that for the life of me. But at any rate, guys, appreciate all your support,
10:35 your help, all the things that you do. Really thank you so much for everything that you continually do.
10:41 Be sure to go to Saints.media or si.com/NFL/Saints to read up on all the details, notes, observations,
10:49 everything you need to know about offense and practice today, the situations, who did what, who did when.
10:55 All those types of things are in my recap. Ross will have the defense up soon.
10:59 I'm John Hendricks for Saints News Network. Thanks again to Justin Burgess of Npro for sponsoring today's show.
11:05 I'm out. Thanks, guys.