Inside Look: Day 18 Saints Training Camp – Who Shined and What Happened?

Jake Haener leads an end of game drive for the second team offense that closed out Saints training camp in California on a high note.

John Hendrix | Aug 16, 2024

Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler at Saints training camp. / Hendrix Media | Saints News Network

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New Orleans Saints

IRVINE -- As the Saints wrap up their time in California, we got one more training camp practice to look at on Friday. Albeit a lighter day for New Orleans, it still gave us some big action as the team worked heavily on team drills. Here's how each quarterback performed and all the details from the day. You can get caught up on attendance and observations here.

Saints Training Camp Recap - Day 18

Alontae Taylor at Saints training camp on Friday, Aug. 16. / Hendrix Media | Saints News Network

QUARTERBACK PERFORMANCE

Derek Carr: 7/13 (1/4, 3/4, 3/5)
Jake Haener: 6/13, TD (3/7, 3/6)
Spencer Rattler: 1/2 (1/2)

TEAM SERIES ONE

These drives started from the offense's 1-yard-line and featured down and distance.

Derek Carr (1/4)

NO 1, 1st-10 - Incomplete, deep left pass intended for Chris Olave (Kool-Aid McKinstry). Pass was a little underthrown.
NO 1, 2nd-10 - Taysom Hill middle inside run for 5 yards. This was off a fullback dive.
NO 6, 3rd-5 - Incomplete, throwaway right. Foster Moreau was the closest in the area. Pressure was building, but I did see Landon Young do a nice job on Chase Young, so it wasn't from his side.
NO 40, 1st-10 - Taysom Hill short run to the left for 3 yards.
NO 43, 2nd-7 - Jamaal Williams short run inside for 3 yards (Willie Gay Jr.)
NO 46, 3rd-4 - Complete, short left side pass to Bub Means for 19 yards (Kool-Aid McKinstry). Means got wide open somehow and got a good bit of YAC on the play.
Swapped to defense's side of the field.
NO 35, 1st-10 - Taysom Hill pitch outside left for 8 yards.
NO 27, 2nd-2 - James Robinson short run right for 3 yards (Bryan Bresee). Carl Granderson had first contact.
NO 24, 1st-10 - Derek Carr designed run left for 2 yards (Willie Gay Jr.). This was originally a play fake in the middle to Taysom Hill and Carr rolled left. Gay Jr. was going to win that race and it looked like it should have been a loss, but they gave him a couple.
NO 22, 2nd-8 - Jamaal Williams outside left run for 4 yards (Chase Young).
NO 18, 3rd-4 - Incomplete, short pass left intended for Jamaal Williams (Willie Gay Jr.) Play was a crosser that went into the flats.
NO 18, 4th-4 - Blake Grupe 36-yard field goal is good.

Jake Haener (3/7)

NO 1, 1st-10 - False start on offensive line. Player it was called on was unknown.
NO 1, 1st-10 - James Robinson inside run for 3 yards (Monty Rice).
NO 4, 2nd-7 - Incomplete, deep right pass intended for Kevin Austin Jr. (Rico Payton/Jordan Howden). Ball was overthrown.
NO 4, 3rd-7 - Complete, intermediate middle pass to Equanimeous St. Brown for 23 yards (Rezjohn Wright). Nice hookup here and Payton Turner was coming for the pressure.
NO 27, 1st-10 - Jordan Mims outside run to the right for 11 yards. Good run for Mims and he had good patience and vision to let it develop.
NO 38, 1st-10 - Incomplete, short left pass intended for Kevin Austin Jr. (Monty Rice). Ball floated a little bit and it hit Rice in the helmet as he was defending Austin Jr.
NO 38, 2nd-10 - James Robinson run inside for 6 yards.
NO 44, 3rd-4 - Incomplete, short middle pass intended for Stanley Morgan Jr. (Rico Payton). It was off his hands and Mac McCain was coming on the blitz.
NO 44, 4th-4 - Complete, short middle pass to Stanley Morgan Jr. for 5 yards (Mac McCain).
Timeout offense.
NO 49, 1st-10 - Complete, short side right to Kevin Rader for 8 yards. Real nice selling of the play action to Jacob Kibodi.
Flipped to defense's side of the field.
NO 43, 2nd-2 - Jacob Kibodi inside run for 14 yards. Real nice job by Kibodi on this play.
NO 29, 1st-10 - James Robinson outside run left for no gain (Mike Rose).
NO 29, 2nd-10 - James Robinson inside run for 5 yards.
NO 24, 3rd-5 - Incomplete, short middle pass intended for Kevin Austin Jr. (Monty Rice/Shemar Jean-Charles). Both Payton Turner and Isaiah Foskey had the pressure ont he play.
NO 24, 4th-6 - Blake Grupe kick is good. Ball was moved up to be an extra point.

TEAM SERIES TWO

Both Derek Carr and Spencer Rattler got work here from the defense's 35-yard-line. They worked on down and distance and were trying to sustain a drive. Here's the sequencing.

Derek Carr (3/4)

NO 35, 1st-10 - Incomplete, fade left pass intended for Taysom Hill (Demario Davis). Two rarities on this play with Davis getting beat by Hill and then Hill dropping what would have been a 20-yard hookup.
NO 35, 2nd-10 - Complete, wide receiver screen left to Chris Olave for a gain of 7 yards.
NO 28, 3rd-3 - Complete, short pass middle to Bub Means for 4 yards (Shemar Jean-Charles).
NO 24, 1st-10 - Taysom Hill toss left for 7 yards. Adam Prentice did a nice job as the lead block here. Willie Gay Jr. had a legitimate opportunity to make this less of a gain, but they gave Hill the yardage.
NO 17, 2nd-3 - Complete, underneath middle to Jamaal Williams for 7 yards (Anfernee Orji). Carr went to Williams after going play action with him originally.
NO 10, 1st-Goal - Jamaal Williams short run left for 1 yard (Anfernee Orji).
NO 10, 2nd-Goal - False start on Equanimeous St. Brown.
NO 15, 2nd-Goal - Derek Carr run left for 4 yards. Coverage was strong and protection broke down, mainly because of Chase Young.
NO 11, 3rd-Goal - Derek Carr run right or 2 yards. Once again, coverage was good and nothing was there. One other thing is that Chris Olave was taken off the field here. The personnel was Taysom Hill, Jamaal Williams, Foster Moreau, Cedrick Wilson Jr. and Bub Means.
NO 9, 4th-Goal - Blake Grupe 27-yard field goal is good. The Saints moved the football up on this play, but there's no explanation we get there. That's solely a coaching decision.

Spencer Rattler (1/2)

NO 35, 1st-10 - Bub Means end around stopped for a loss (Mike Rose). Fun play design, but the execution was off.
NO 35, 2nd-10 - James Robinson inside run for 6 yards (Mike Rose). Again, a coaching decision didn't move the offense back here.
NO 29, 3rd-4 - Complete, short pass left to Cedrick Wilson Jr. for 3 yards (Kool-Aid McKinstry). McKinstry put some hit on Wilson Jr. on the play that got a really fun reaction.
NO 26, 1st-10 - Delay of game on Spencer Rattler. They gave the offense the first down and spotted it there.
NO 31, 1st-15 - Incomplete, screen left pass intended for Jacob Kibodi (Khaleke Hudson). Pass was dropped. Jesse Davis was in position to make a good play for the line.
NO 31, 2nd-15 - Spencer Rattler keeper inside for 4 yards (Isaiah Foskey/Khristian Boyd). Nice spin move off the line by Payton Turner to provide the pressure and force Rattler to take off.
NO 27, 3rd-11 - Spencer Rattler keeper inside for 4 yards (Kendal Vickers/Niko Lalos). This might have been a sack by Vickers, but it was allowed to play out. The bottom line is the protection broke down again.
NO 23, 4th-8 - Blake Grupe 37-yard field goal is good. Ball was moved up to the 19.

TEAM SERIES THREE - END OF GAME

The scenario was the offense was down 28-23 with no timeouts and had 48 seconds to work with at the defense's 45-yard-line.

Derek Carr (3/5)

0:48, NO 45 (1st-10) - Complete, short quick left pass to Cedrick Wilson Jr. for 4 yards.
0:30, NO 41 (2nd-6) - Complete, short pass left to Foster Moreau for 4 yards (Rezjohn Wright).
0:25, NO 37 (3rd-2) - Complete, short right pass to Taysom Hill for 5 yards (Kool-Aid McKinstry). Carl Granderson had pressure on the play.
0:11, NO 32 (1st-10) - Incomplete, spike.
0:11, NO 32 (2nd-10) - Incomplete, intermediate pass to the right sideline intended for Bub Means (Alontae Taylor). Taylor nearly got the pick, and then the aftermath resulted in Bryan Bresee scuffling with Erik McCoy and Lucas Patrick. Dennis Allen took the offense off the field because he didn't want to attempt a Hail Mary.

Jake Haener (3/6, TD)

0:48, NO 45 (1st-10) - Incomplete, short right pass intended for Dallin Holker (Shemar Jean-Charles).
0:43, NO 45 (2nd-10) - Complete, intermediate left pass to Kevin Austin Jr. for 20 yards (Millard Bradford). Very nice hookup for these two.
0:27, NO 25 (1st-10) - Incomplete, spike.
0:27, NO 25 (1st-10) - Complete, intermediate pass to Samson Nacua for 11 Willie Gayffyards (Lawrence Johnson). Easily one of the best throws of the day with Haener threading the needle here.
0:14, NO 14 (1st-10) - Incomplete, fade left pass intended for Kevin Austin Jr. (J.T. Gray). Haener did the Dan Marino fake spike play, but it didn't work out. Still, love to see the risk and creativity.
0:10, NO 14 (2nd-10) - Complete, end zone left pass complete for a touchdown (Mac McCain). Beautiful placement here by Haener, who ended up rolling left and evaded Willie Gay Jr. to make a throw that went into the back of the end zone and Austin Jr. had perfect placement in the corner to get the score.
0:04 (2-point attempt) - Interesting play here. The Saints offense kneeled the football with their 29-28 lead. I actually like this move and understand it. If you kick the PAT, you run the risk of a block and then return. The Saints know about that sequence. The other thought process is by not running a play, there's nothing the defense can do about it. Smart.

Saints Training Camp Recaps

Published Aug 16, 2024

JOHN HENDRIX

I officially started covering the New Orleans Saints & other NFL topics in 2011. My work has been featured on various outlets over the years. I worked closely with Skyhorse Publishing in Fall 2018 to update the book, Tales From the New Orleans Saints Sidelines, which filled in all Saints material from the 2013-2017 seasons. Prior to joining Saints News Network, I served as the Managing Editor of SB Nation's Canal Street Chronicles for 3.5 years, and before that with FanSided's Who Dat Dish as the Managing Editor for several years. I have also had experiences of being a freelance Saints reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS and a contributing writer for WDSU, a local NBC TV station in New Orleans. I have appeared on a vast amount of TV and Radio shows, both nationally and locally. For tips, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at johnhendrix@saintsnews.net