Saints Training Camp: Notes and Observations from Day 19

The Saints worked exclusively indoors for Tuesday's practice, which brought us plenty of takeaways as training camp dwindles down.

It's hard to think that we have just two more Saints training camp practices that we'll be able to see before getting into Week 1 of the regular season. There's plenty of things the team will need to get answers on on Friday against the Chargers, and things seem like they are coming together more and more. Here's a look at all our notes and observations from Tuesday's indoor practice.

TRAINING CAMP RECAPS: 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: Taysom Hill and Taco Charlton both returned to practice on Tuesday, but the Saints were still down 14 players. Among those not spotted included Tre'Quan Smith, Michael Thomas, Kevin White, Marshon Lattimore, Dwayne Washington, P.J. Williams, Alontae Taylor, Chase Hansen, Cesar Ruiz, Landon Young, Ryan Ramczyk, James Hurst, Adam Trautman, and Carl Granderson. Pete Werner was doing work off to the side.

NICKS AND BRUISES: Dennis Allen said after practice that several of the players are dealing with 'nicks and bruises' on the offensive line that the team is working through, so some of these absences shouldn't be a big cause for concern. Josh Andrews got dinged up during practice, but returned. Tony Jones Jr. also did, left, and then came back to do some individual work off to the side. Both Calvin Throckmorton and Andrus Peat also had small dings, but remained on the field and practiced.

ENCOURAGING SIGN: Marcus Davenport and Jameis Winston both took part in all team drills today, which was a huge step forward for both. Winston even took off in some of his reps for scrambles, something we haven't really seen. Dennis Allen said they'll probably have discussions on Wednesday evening regarding preseason reps against the Chargers.

WALKTHROUGHS: The Saints rolled out another nickel look today, with Cam Jordan, Shy Tuttle, David Onyemata, and Payton Turner anchoring the defensive line. Nephi Sewell worked alongside Demario Davis at linebacker, with C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the slot. Paulson Adebo and Bradley Roby were at corner, and Tyrann Mathieu and Marcus Maye were at safety. Subs included Eric Wilson, Jon Bostic, J.T. Gray, Malcolm Roach, Tanoh Kpassagnon, Taco Charlton, and Kentavius Street.

On offense, the Saints had an offensive line of Trevor Penning, Andrus Peat, Erik McCoy, Calvin Throckmorton, and Lewis Kidd. Subs and rotational players included Chris Olave, Deonte Harty, Alvin Kamara, Nick Vannett, Juwan Johnson, Jarvis Landry, Marquez Callaway, Adam Prentice, Taysom Hill, and Mark Ingram.

7-ON-7: Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton took all reps in 7-on-7, and they both went 4-of-5 in each of their series operating in the red zone. 

Winston hit a pass to Alvin Kamara in the flats to start, and then connected on a 15-yard wheel route to him for the score working against Nephi Sewell. Sewell had good coverage on the play, it was just a great throw from Winston. Bradley Roby had a pass breakup on a curl route to Marquez Callaway on the next play, and then Winston had back-to-back touchdown passes to Chris Olave on a curl from the 6-yard-line and Jarvis Landry on a crossing route from the 4-yard-line. The Landry hookup was a great throw in tight coverage from Eric Wilson.

Dalton hit Kirk Merritt in the flats on his first passing attempt, and then found Dai'Jean Dixon on a short curl. He then found Merritt again out of the backfield on an option route. Merritt was again exclusively with the running back group. From the 5-yard-line, Rashid Shaheed dropped a slant route for a touchdown, but came back on the next play to get it from 3 yards out.

TEAM DRILLS: There were four separate team drills we saw today. Jameis Winston finished 10-of-16, which including going 5-of-6 operating under a minute to play with no timeouts. Andy Dalton went 5-of-9, and Ian Book completed his lone pass after coming in for relief of Dalton after he got stepped on during a play.

Winston's first work had him complete passes to Mark Ingram in the flats off play action for a small gain and then missed a crossing route to Deonte Harty due to a Tyrann Mathieu pass breakup. Mathieu had a good practice day. David Onyemata had a good stop on the second play, an inside run to Mark Ingram. Alvin Kamara had a good run to the second level on an outside stretch the play after. Winston's drive ended after a toss play to Kamara went for a short gain.

Dalton went 2-of-2 in his series, hitting a deep crossing route off play action to Dai'Jean Dixon and then a wide receiver screen to Chris Olave that saw Andrew Dowell force a fumble that went out of bounds. Running plays included a two short ones to Kirk Merritt inside and off tackle to Kamara that was stopped by Josh Black. Dalton had a boot of his own on a keeper after Niko Lalos provided pressure.

For the second series, Winston went 1-of-3. He scrambled on his first play and looked good and comfortable doing it. He hit a shovel screen to Alvin Kamara on the first passing play, and then missed a crossing route to Kawaan Baker after a drop. Tyrann Mathieu came on the blitz and likely would have been credited with a sack. Winston took off again on a scramble for the next play, and then Brian Allen had a pass breakup on a curl route to Marquez Callaway.

Dalton went 2-of-4 on his next series, hitting Callaway on a deep fade route off the right sideline working against Brian Allen. He ran out of the pocket on the next play, being pursued by C.J. Gardner-Johnson who stripped the ball from him, but it went out of bounds. He overthrew Dai'Jean Dixon on the sideline for the next play, then found Chris Olave deep on the right sideline after a good toe tap. He tried Dixon one more time off the deep left sideline, but it was out of bounds. Dixon still made the catch, and it was a one-handed one.

Winston and Dalton then got to work a full series operating from their own territory. Winston went 4-of-6 and got the team close to scoring. On the drive, Alvin Kamara had six touches in the first seven plays. The drive opened with two runs to him, and then Jarvis Landry got free for a big gain deep right on 3rd and 3. Kaden Elliss had a tackle for loss on Kamara on the next play, and then got two dump-offs from him. 

David Onyemata and Kaden Elliss combined for a tackle for loss on Kamara from the 12, and then Winston found Olave on a curl route to get to the 6. Bradley Roby had a good pass breakup at the goal line on Marquez Callaway on 3rd and Goal, and the offense elected to go for it. Winston tried to hit Juwan Johnson in the end zone, but Tyrann Mathieu was in excellent positioning to pick off the pass and kill the drive.

Andy Dalton went 1-of-3 during his work. Nephi Sewell had a nice run stop on Mark Ingram on the first inside run, and then Ingram went inside again for a short gain. On 3rd Down, Dalton couldn't hook up on the slant route to Deonte Harty. 

The Saints coaches elected to keep the drive going after simulating a holding call on the defense. There was another run to Ingram that saw Sewell make another tackle, and then Dalton threw away the next play off play action. He hit Deonte Harty on a curl on 3rd Down, and that's where Dalton went off after getting stepped on.

Ian Book came in for three plays, operating at the defense's 34-yard-line. Kirk Merritt had a good run after cutting inside to get to the second level. Josh Black had a tackle for loss on Mark Ingram, and Book's drive ended after he connected on a short out to Dai'Jean Dixon. Payton Turner was there for the pressure and would have likely had a sack.

For the final team period, it was operating with just 40 seconds left and no timeouts. Jameis Winston looked strong on this drive, going 5-of-6 and moving the offense down the field. The first play was a bit of a fluke, as David Onyemata broke up the pass, but Winston caught it and ran some. He hit Juwan Johnson off the sideline for a short gain, and then hit a big one off the deep right sideline to Chris Olave with 23 seconds left to the 25-yard-line.

Winston then hit Jarvis Landry near the sideline for a 9-yard gain, and hurried up the team to spike the ball. With 10 seconds to go, Winston found Jarvis Landry for the 16-yard score after he made a one-handed catch after originally tipping it up to himself working against Marcus Maye. That was easily the play of the day.

TREVOR PENNING: This might have been his best day of practice. He was solid in pass protection. There was only one rep that I observed that he would have wanted back, working against Payton Turner. That led to a sack on Jameis Winston. However, there were 10 reps I focused in on him and he won nine of them in pass protection, going up against Marcus Davenport (3), Taco Charlton (1), Niko Lalos (1), and Payton Turner (5).

BETTER SHOWING: We said yesterday that things looked a little bit lethargic at practice, particularly for the offense. Marquez Callaway said after practice that they were a bit sluggish on Tuesday and that they tried to come out with more energy. It showed for the receivers today.

We have just one more practice for the week before the team matches up with the Chargers at home in the Superdome on Friday. Hopefully we see several players return to practice ahead of the team's final preseason game on Wednesday.

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