Jimmy Graham and Marshon Lattimore returned to Saints training camp practice on Day 19. That and much more from Wednesday.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hey folks, John Hendricks here coming at you with another training camp recap. Day 19 all indoors. A lot of guys return today.
00:08 Also a lot of news to pass along to you. All those fun things.
00:12 But of course before we get into training camp and deep diving into there,
00:15 shout out to Justin Burgess of BendPro for sponsoring today's show. Again,
00:20 if you own a business in the greater New Orleans region, you guys know this now,
00:24 contact Justin for any needs for health employee benefits or any type of health insurance needs.
00:30 Justin Burgess of BendPro, 504-888-8038. Tell him John Hendricks sent you.
00:35 He will take good care of you. Handles accounts like Nola Motorsports, others,
00:39 to be determined, all sorts of things that you do know and you don't know yet.
00:44 All right, SAIT's training camp day 19. So let's start with the big news of the day. Jimmy Graham returning.
00:50 You know, this is something that was hinted at by Dennis Allen on Tuesday that Graham would return to practice.
00:57 And so look, it wasn't just a return to practice for Graham. Look, he was involved.
01:01 He was working with the first team, working in team, made a couple of catches today.
01:05 So look, it was Jimmy Graham like we kind of were used to and know. So I think that's great first step for him.
01:11 You know, obviously we'll have to keep an eye out and see what happens down the line. But I think
01:16 without, you know, being a medical professional, I think maybe this is a one-off episode and, you know,
01:23 hopefully there's no other types of
01:25 anything that come up for Graham later. I know he's going to be counted on this season for this team.
01:30 They have big plans for him. I do believe he's gonna make the final roster.
01:33 And so look, I think there's a sky's the limit for Jimmy Graham and what he can do in this offense.
01:38 So we'll pay attention to that.
01:40 But that was a great sign seeing him back on the field, not only on the field, but working. Other guys returning to the mix,
01:45 Marshawn Lattimore, Calvin Throckmorton also returning. Throckmorton was dealing with a ribs issue.
01:50 Lattimore with that knee. Both were around, you know, left about individual drills.
01:55 So that was kind of where you're at, not part of team, but good sign for Lattimore. Again,
02:00 you know, we're in favor of maybe shutting him down before the season starts, but working his way back, that was good.
02:06 As far as other players that returned, Smoke Monday, he was dealing with a personal matter yesterday.
02:12 Nico Lalo's returned to action in addition to Graham. So getting a little bit better, but same usual suspects,
02:18 it seems like for the injury report or guys that weren't there. Taysom Hill still dealing with that oblique strain.
02:24 No update yet on him, you know, originally it was a one to two day thing that we thought, but look,
02:30 he made the practice or he made the joint practices last week, was out there in California.
02:35 It's his birthday too. So maybe, maybe he got the day off, but you know, hopefully we see him back soon.
02:40 Traequan Smith, we mentioned, hadn't seen him since day nine. Jesse James, haven't seen him since day 12.
02:46 A.T. Perry was out with an illness today. That was really a new face to be there. Rashid Shaheed's been out. We know that.
02:52 Kirk Merritt was out again.
02:54 You know, again, we talked about him yesterday on the show and just to recap about where he's kind of at. Darrell Williams left practice early.
03:02 He's, wasn't there today. They're very thin at running back and wide receiver today. A little bit concerning.
03:07 I think they were missing what about five or six guys in the mix in their skill positions there. A little bit unsettling.
03:13 Ryan Connolly, we touched on him yesterday, dealing with a significant knee injury.
03:17 Likely not to return. We'll see what happens there. Landon Young, MCL injury.
03:21 And then Lynn Bowden Jr., Cam Jordan, rest day.
03:24 Ryan Ramchick was there at the beginning of practice before stretches and he went inside. So clearly a bad day for him.
03:30 So overall, you know, health I think is trending a little bit upward.
03:34 It's interesting that the Texans announced today that they are going to plan on playing their starters on Sunday for the preseason finale.
03:40 Which again, reminder, nationally televised on Fox. Kevin Burkhart, Greg Olson going to have the call. Aaron Summers, Tom Rinaldi on the sideline.
03:48 Going to be a really nice little event and way to kind of close down things for the preseason.
03:52 But, you know, as far as the Saints go, we're not sure what kind of starting capacity they're going to have.
03:56 I don't expect the starters to play in this game. I believe
04:01 it'll be similar to what we saw against the Chargers. Now that remains to be seen. No official word for Dennis Allen.
04:06 So this is just me speculating on it.
04:08 But I think based off of what we've seen, where guys are at,
04:10 they really need to figure out this bottom part of their depth chart and bottom part of the roster and the practice squad.
04:18 So I think five, six spots may be up for grabs.
04:20 I want to get those answers. Do I carry an extra wide receiver or a guy like Shaq Davis?
04:25 Can you make a final push to get on the roster? Do I carry the extra safety?
04:29 Do we find a spot for Ugo Amade?
04:31 You know, Marcus May, he might be suspended at the start of the year.
04:34 That's a potential roster spot that may be available for the first three weeks.
04:38 Is Ellis Merriweather going to be this team's third running back on the roster,
04:43 with Kamara set to be suspended behind Jamal Williams and Kendray Miller?
04:47 All sorts of things. Kicking battle. Touched on that.
04:51 You know, Will Lutz, he hit all five of his kicks today. Groupie missed one. It was from
04:58 39, I want to say. It was wide right. So yeah, 21 right hash. So wide right. Interesting battle going on.
05:05 Again, I think
05:08 Ty goes to the runner in that one.
05:09 I think Lutz and Gilligan are probably the guys that are gonna win this job.
05:13 I think Punter can probably go either way,
05:15 but Lutz is probably gonna be a guy, a veteran that you can count on.
05:19 He took a lesser deal to be here. Has a lot of incentives built into his contract.
05:23 I think this team can use Will Lutz, but I expect Blake Groupie to be on somebody's roster week one and kicking for them in week one.
05:29 That's how good he's been.
05:31 He's got the leg.
05:33 62 easily, maybe upwards a little bit more than that, but he is deceptive in how his stature is.
05:39 But man, he's got a heck of a leg. So I'm really interested in seeing that. As far as practice flow today, we had
05:45 one-on-ones. So that was always fun. Always fun to watch one-on-ones, you know.
05:51 It's a drill that normally caters to the offensive side, but defense had some pretty good plays.
05:56 But of them, you know, look, I was encouraged by
05:59 Alontae Taylor leading things off with a nice little pass break up in the end zone on a fade route to John Trae Kirkland.
06:06 Kwon Baker had a touchdown. Another pass break up, Ugo Amadi on Shaq Davis on a fade route.
06:11 Keith Kirkwood continues to be impressive. He won both of his reps.
06:18 Let me make sure I've got that right. Actually all three of his reps and two of them were for touchdowns.
06:23 One from car, two from car, three from car. So he made some really good moves. Again, I keep telling you,
06:29 I've been telling you guys about this.
06:31 He's most likely going to be wide receiver four in this team. And whether you feel good about that or not,
06:36 he's played well enough to earn a roster spot. He's played better
06:40 than a lot to earn a roster spot. And so I think he's wide receiver four. The gatee Perry comes in at five.
06:46 You know Perry and Shaq Davis, those are guys that are going to have to learn the special team side.
06:50 I think Davis is priority practice squad, but if they keep six receivers, it's got to be Shaq Davis.
06:55 You can't convince me right now that Trae Kwon Smith has a roster spot on here because we haven't seen him since day nine.
07:01 He's been injured after everybody saying, "Oh, he's finally healthy."
07:05 That's the tough one. So I think, you know, Trae Kwon, you can't make a roster case for him. It's just not gonna happen.
07:12 But going back to one-on-ones, look, I thought Mike Thomas looked good, too.
07:16 You know, I don't think it's indicative just looking at his one-on-ones.
07:19 You know, I have him two of four. Nice little pass breakup from Marcus May.
07:23 But look, I think the biggest thing you appreciate about Mike is that
07:26 he's getting in and out of his cuts and his breaks
07:30 better in practice. And so it may not always lead to a catch. You know, there are some times where he was a little bit frustrated.
07:38 He's been frustrated in camp, whether he, when he runs a great route and throws just not there, whatever the case may be.
07:43 But that's Mike Thomas. He's just gonna be a contender every rep.
07:47 He's gonna go at it like it's his last.
07:50 And so that's the type of energy that Michael Thomas brings to the table.
07:55 And so I think he's on the ascension, you know. Again, Chris Olave looked outstanding in one-on-ones.
08:00 But he made two catches that didn't count. Both of them were one-handed and they were out of bounds.
08:05 He also had a good one-on-one rep against Isaac Gotem. So again, there's a lot of stuff that you take away from this.
08:12 I was really happy with one-on-ones today. I don't think it was catered to one particular side.
08:18 I thought the defense did some good things. I thought the offense did some really good things.
08:21 And so those things, sorry, bump things,
08:24 will matter. Seven on seven, they focused on the red zone. Again,
08:29 we talked about Michael Thomas. Nice little nasty route. And I put this in my notes. It says "nasty."
08:34 I don't know if you can read all that thing, but it's right
08:38 here. Yeah, you can see it says "nasty" with the route he won against Alante Taylor.
08:42 You know, just cutting inside and cutting out and then just being wide open for a touchdown with seven on seven.
08:49 So that was one of the good moments I remember seeing today.
08:52 And I had a couple of them, you know. Taylor had Gotem on the other rep before with the pass breakup in the end zone, left end zone.
08:59 So, you know, these two are battling. Handsy, physical, you know. Alante,
09:05 talking about it after practice. I mean, Mike makes him better, right? And, you know, Chris Alave makes him better.
09:11 But he also, in the same breath,
09:13 Alante makes Chris better, you know, and these other guys. So I was really impressed with what I saw there in seven on sevens.
09:19 Look, this is another thing. We moved to Jameis.
09:22 One of his plays was a slant to Jimmy Graham for a touchdown. That's what I was talking about, right to left.
09:27 That was a good thing to see. That was one of his plays. He made a couple more in team later.
09:33 You know, we had a near pick. Anthony Johnson had one in his hands and he just couldn't come down with it.
09:38 He dropped it. So those are always tough to see.
09:41 Moving to team. Well, before I go to team. So in this period after team, look,
09:47 Brian Versailles left practice today. Got hit in the eye. He left with an eye injury.
09:52 So he got looked at on the sideline for about five, six minutes and then they were making some calls.
09:57 And so he ended up walking to the locker room. Hopefully nothing serious.
10:01 But again, you remember last year Cam had got poked in the eye and he ended up missing the game.
10:05 But we'll see. I think Malcolm Roach has played exceptional. Jack Heflin stepped in for Brian Versailles.
10:11 And I think he made the most of his reps. I mean, this is a guy XFL honors, you know, awards for his play there.
10:17 He's one of Bill Johnson's guys. I think he's done quietly nice in this camp.
10:21 Somebody that I think could be on this practice squad, no doubt. But we'll see how that kind of plays out.
10:26 But, you know, interesting, interestingly enough, again, going to team first period,
10:33 Chris Olave on a deep right route near the sideline, you know, probably about 30, 35 yards is what we're looking at on that.
10:43 Good pressure. Look, I think Tano Passagnon was a guy that was noticeable today.
10:48 Him and Peyton Turner. Turner made back to back plays in team against the second team, you know, offensive line when Jamison there.
10:55 First was a tackle for loss against Jamal Williams, run into the outside.
10:59 And the second was a pass breakup at the line of scrimmage when an intended slant to Kwon Baker.
11:04 And so, we've talked about Passagnon a little bit. We've talked about Turner plenty.
11:08 We've also talked about, you know, Carl Granderson. I feel really good about this defensive end group.
11:15 So much better than probably when we went into training camp.
11:19 And look, I expected Carl Granderson to have a better showing. I expected Tano to have more of a role.
11:25 But Carl Granderson is the guy, I mean, sorry, Peyton Turner is the guy for me that, you know, a lot of it hinged on him.
11:31 Now, Isaiah Foskey, he made some plays today. I think he had one of his best practices of training camp today.
11:37 And so, that was a welcome sight. He made some run stops. He made some pressures, getting the sack in team.
11:43 So, those are the types of things you want to see. Dennis Allen also kind of echoing it.
11:47 You know, look, it was a bad look against the Chargers. It was a play that DA thought he could make on Easton Stick.
11:54 But takes bad angle, you know, bites on the play fake. Those things are going to happen.
11:58 And so, again, I think right now in the pecking order, Foskey is going to be number five.
12:02 We'll see if he gets active on game days and stuff. But, you know, he's still very much a work in progress in some aspects.
12:08 And I think that's expected for some of these pass rushers. I don't expect day one that he's going to come out here and just be something crazy.
12:15 I think Versailles made major leaps to be there. So, he's going to be very much a factor here.
12:21 Looking at more things, you know, Shaq Davis, again, he leaps off the screen. He made a couple of good catches today.
12:26 And then going to the next team period, you know, some interesting sequences.
12:32 Second team offense had a couple of pre-snap penalties, which Dennis Allen talked about.
12:36 You know, that's just inexcusable. So, two false start penalties.
12:39 You know, when they moved into the other team drills too, they used crowd noise and music.
12:44 So, it was pretty loud. I mean, you have to yell to the person next to you to kind of get some of the feedback and such.
12:49 But, you know, that was interesting to see there. A lot of pressure from guys.
12:54 You know, Demario Davis popping out. You know, Jawan Johnson popping on some things.
12:59 You're looking at others, again, they were using their NASCAR package.
13:03 You know, they put Tano inside. And it's something he told me in the locker room, that they're just trying to get their best guys out there.
13:10 You know, or like Turner passing you on. And Gur Anderson and then Nathan Shepard went in there.
13:16 So, I think overall, some really good stuff from notes.
13:20 Again, if you want to know all the details, all the things that happen at training camp, every single play, every single rep, you know where to go.
13:28 Saints.media, si.com/NFL/Saints. You guys know this.
13:33 You're going to spend a few minutes, make you a coffee, get in the zone, read up on all of it.
13:39 You'll know everything that we know from training camp practice, dialed in every single minute.
13:44 No plays off. That's where you're going to get all your observations.
13:48 And so, you know, check them out as far as it goes. I mean, you guys know this.
13:52 Another sack, split sack between Nathan Shepard and Tano and Derek Carr and one of the team reps.
13:57 Again, Chris Alave popping. There were two plays, back-to-back plays that I want to talk about.
14:03 At the end, Carr and his team drills and the last one that he took.
14:07 Two just amazing throws. First one was Chris Alave with Paulson Odeibo.
14:12 It was a throw, deep right, great coverage by Paulson Odeibo.
14:17 But when I tell you that Derek Carr thread the needle perfectly to Chris Alave, I mean, perfect.
14:24 A la Drew Brees-like, Drew Brees-esque.
14:27 And he did that on the next play to Jawan Johnson, intermediate middle route in the left side.
14:34 So, another thread of the needle. Those are the things that I like seeing.
14:38 Because I think that's some of the things that have been missing a lot from this team ever since Drew was in there.
14:43 I don't, again, I like the DA mentality. I don't have to see it every day, but when I see it,
14:48 that gets me excited about the possibilities and the capabilities of this offense and where Derek Carr could potentially lead this team.
14:54 So, really excited there. Shaq Davis made a really deep catch coming for the slot.
14:59 You know, we pointed out and talked about him and A.T. Perry playing a little bit more special teams.
15:03 Shaq's played special teams. He played at SC State.
15:06 But, you know, nice little 30-plus yard hookup from Jamis Winston in teams there.
15:10 You know, this is where Jimmy got another one. He got a short pass with some yak on it.
15:15 Yards after catch, if you don't know what yak is.
15:17 And then he got a deep left down the seam off play action, you know, for a big gain, too.
15:22 So, that's why I say, Jimmy, having a pretty good day.
15:25 Catching this targets. That's what you want to see. I'm excited. I'm encouraged about it.
15:30 Look, we'll see how this team shapes out. We've got two more practices.
15:34 They've got Thursday and then Friday's going to be in the Dome.
15:37 And then you've got preseason action on Sunday.
15:40 Then we'll get one more practice. But training camp is winding down.
15:44 I can't believe it. I honestly can't. But here we are. This is what's going to happen.
15:49 So, stick with us. We've got plenty more coming up.
15:53 And again, if you need anything for your small business in the greater New Orleans region,
15:58 give Justin Burgess a call for BenPro5048888038.
16:03 And again, if you plan on going to the game, you may or may not have some tickets to raffle off later.
16:08 Oh, by the way, be sure to use that SeatGeek code, HENDRIX, to get $20 off of your first order.
16:14 And if it's not football, use it for any sporting event. $20 off. Use the code HENDRIX, SeatGeek.
16:21 That's going to do it for today, Day 19.
16:24 Thank you, guys, for all your support, comments, thoughts, loves, criticisms, feelings, all of the above.
16:31 I really appreciate it. John Hendricks for Saints News Network, signing out.