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Saints Training Camp: Notes and Observations from Day 2

What went down at Day of Saints training camp? Here's all of our notes and observations.

John Hendrix

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The Saints wrapped up their second training camp practice on Thursday, and it against gave us plenty to talk about. Here's a look at all of the happenings from Airline Drive with our notes and observations.

Notes and Observations

ATTENDANCE: Tyrann Mathieu (excused), Sage Doxtater, Juwan Johnson, Rashid Shaheed (NFI), Tanoh Kpassgnon (NFI), and were among those not spotted at practice on Thursday.

Pete Werner and Marcus Davenport ended up showing up later in practice doing some individual work off to the side without a helmet. Taysom Hill ended up leaving practice for a short period, but ended up returning. Jerald Hawkins left practice early.

WALKTHROUGH OFFENSE: James Hurst, Andrus Peat, Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz, and Landon Young were taking first-team reps in walkthroughs. One thing to point out is that Nick Vannett joined the first team with Juwan Johnson being out of action.

WALKTHROUGH DEFENSE AND SUBS: The Saints had another 4-3 base look today, rolling with Cam Jordan, David Onyemata, Shy Tuttle, and Carl Granderson along the defensive line. Kaden Elliss, Demario Davis, and Eric Wilson were at linebacker, with Bradley Roby and Marshon Lattimore at corner. Marcus Maye and P.J. Williams were at safety.

Taco Charlton rotated in for Jordan, while C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Paulson Adebo were subs in the secondary. Zack Baun joined later to be a rotation for the linebacker group, and Jaleel Johnson and Kentavius Street were the second tandem on the interior.

COLD TRAILER: Forgot to mention this yesterday, but the Saints have their 'cold trailer' again to help battle some of the heat. The temp inside is 25 degrees. 

7-ON-7 NOTES: Winston went 4-of-4, Dalton went 3-of-4, and Book was 4-of-4. Most of the completions were short with an emphasis on getting the ball out quickly. We did see a somewhat play of the day that saw D'Marco Jackson get a sack on Dalton. Deonte Harty would have wanted this one back to make a killer catch, but give Alontae Taylor some credit for the coverage. 

One of the other things I'd point out was Bradley Roby having some really tight coverage working against some of the Saints wide receivers. A lot of the focus goes on Paulson Adebo, but you can't forget about his importance this year.

11-ON-11 NOTES: We had two separate periods of this, with the first one going really rough for the offense. Each quarterback ran four plays, and of the five passes, only Winston had a completion on his two attempts. He tried Deonte Harty deep down the sideline, but the pass was out of bounds. Dalton went 0-of-1, and Book's two incompletions were from a drop from Kawaan Baker and a pass out of bounds for Kirk Merritt with Smoke Monday in coverage. Merritt made a great catch, but it wouldn't have counted at all.

The second stretch resulted in a better showing, and we saw Trevor Penning starting at left tackle here with Ethan Greenidge at left guard. Winston went 2-of-4, Dalton was 2-of-3, and Book went 3-of-4. Paulson Adebo would have a sack on Winston on his final rep.

COORDINATOR NOTES: One of the things we pointed out back in minicamp and such was the fact that the Saints would have their coordinators call plays at different points defensively. This was on display today, as Kris Richard handled a lot of things in walkthroughs and 7-on-7, but Ryan Nielsen would in 11-on-11. Dennis Allen will be handling this as of now, but it's still an interesting thing to watch.

LANDON YOUNG: Young worked a good bit more with the first team offense today. I had asked Ryan Ramczyk about him following practice. It sounds like the growth is there, which is a strong sign for the second-year tackle.

Ramczyk said, "It's always hard coming in as a rookie to pick up the entire playbook and understand everything that's going on. So, I think he's done a really good job at that throughout the course of last year and then coming into this year, I think he's able to let it loose a little bit more, play a little bit faster, but also at the same time, he's able to work on different techniques and get a little a little bit more concentration on things that he needs to focus on. And I think he's done a really good job of being able to take that rookie year and then transition and keep getting better."

TIGHT END ROOM: Adam Trautman and the tight end group knows the pressure that is on them. One of the things he talked about after practice was Taysom Hill's excitement being in the group, saying how fun it was afterwards. This is a group that undoubtedly needs to get better.

Trautman said, “We feel very confident about our progress and improvement that we will have this year, and we're very confident it will happen.”

NODS TO JAMEIS WINSTON: Winston has been praised for him being the first and last person to get in and out of the building. When talking to Trautman, he made it a point to call this out again. Practice had been over for quite some time, but Winston was still putting in some personal work. 

Trautman said, “The best thing about him is obviously he works so hard. I've rarely been around human beings that work as hard as him, and he's so intentional with everything that he does.”

FAMILY TIME: While fans are not in attendance yet, some family members were. Andy Dalton's was one in particular that stood out. He had a very strong following at practice to support him. Dennis Allen is allowing this during training camp.

PAYTON TURNER: He looked killer today. One particular rep saw him bullrush Jerald Hawkins, and you could probably think about what that looked like. He's had two real good practices, and it's a really scary thought to see him get going for this pass rush.

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John Hendrix
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

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