Winston questionable for Bucs at Saints

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FRIDAY INJURY REPORT

Out
G Larry Warford (DNP – abdomen)

Limited Practice
G Andrus Peat (hip)
T Terron Armstead (shoulder)

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS INJURY REPORT

Out
CB Brent Grimes (DNP – shoulder)

Questionable
WR Adam Humphries (FP – rib)
DE Robert Ayers (LP – ankle)
LB Kendall Beckwith (LP – knee)
DT Chris Baker (FP – ankle)
QB Jameis Winston (FP – right shoulder)

Full Practice
CB Robert McClain (concussion)
S Josh Robinson (concussion)

New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton

Post-Practice Media Availability

Friday, November 3, 2017

There’s been a lot of talk around the NFL about how it’s hard to find offensive linemen, but you guys have been deep, is there any common trait you look for when you’re putting it together?

“We drafted one in the first round (Ryan Ramczyk). I think no different than anyone else, it is an important part of your team. Often times we feel like that position group can permeate your whole team. Fortunately, the depth that we’ve received certainly from the draft and the younger guys that weren’t drafted has allowed us some flexibility with some injuries.”

Is there a commitment with you guys in the offensive line in developing guys that may start?

“It has been. There are certain traits you look for in a developmental offensive linemen. Do they love the weight room? Are they smart? Are they smart enough to see the vision, two, three years down the road? I can go on and on with guys that have come in and have been important parts to what we do and some of them have been guys like Jonathan Goodwin, who was a kind of a backup player with the Jets, (who) we had a vision for. I couldn’t even name them all but we have draft picks play and then guys that we’ve signed from other teams.”

How about Max Unger? When you guys traded for him, did you envision him being as much as sort of a rock for that unit?

“It is an important position and it has worked out (for us). It is what we were looking for with the trade.”

Michael Thomas is on a pretty impressive pace but he hasn’t really had a huge statistical game. What are some of the ways he’s impacted the defense even when he’s not putting up big numbers?

Primarily he’s an X receiver so he’s to the split end side. The easiest way to look at the defense is there’s a corner over him, the free safety is in the middle of the field, with the corner by himself. There are a handful of things by coverage but I think he has real good run after the catch ability. He competes. All the things you look for with the size and the strength element in today’s game.”

You guys have had a lot of success with short passes a lot to running backs. How much of that may be his impact?

I think there’s some looks where because the coverage look is up, an easier way to do it would be maybe the one snap in New England where it was two by two and they were cheating the free towards Mike and (Brandon) Coleman became the beneficiary on the touchdown play. Sometimes it’s the running backs. It would be hard to go through each running back reception and value it relative to Mike. Obviously, having enough targets within the framework of your offense helps.”

Does he receive more attention than any receiver you guys have ever had? I know Marques Colston and Jimmy Graham played together.

I think some teams are playing their base defense and sub defense. Certainly everyone in the man coverages of the world might match guys. We have a lot of good receivers. I think a lot of it is depending on the coverage. Defenses have changed too since then. But Marques was real good over there.”

The way the defense has been played, has it allowed you to become more risk-averse on offense? Maybe not taking as many chances at times? Being safer with the football?

I think the games dictate that. How a game’s going, weather conditions?  I’d like to think that in each we’re flexible and are trying to play complementary game. We understand certainly that games can go in a certain direction. I’d say maybe in some cases the opposite if you feel like ‘I am going to do this on fourth down”, or otherwise I might punt. Does that make sense? So I think you’re paying attention to your instincts, your gut as the game is unfolding and how a game is unfolding. That’s what I’d say.”

Last night a couple of your players took to social media to comment on the circumstances regarding the declined award?

“I haven’t read any.”

The question is, do you think that your players are being unfairly characterized or even politicized by some because of the protests?

I know and understand the importance of the question and yet people that know our players and the fans. We have really good guys. It’s one of the first things we look for when we’re procuring talent is finding the right makeup. So I don’t worry about the other stuff and social media. I like the guys we have and I think that they’re guys that work hard, they’re tough, resilient and that’s why they’re here.”

I know this is a tough question because you’ve been with Drew (Brees) so long but when you see how he’s playing at age 38, what, if anything, jumps out at you?

“The consistency. When you look at the amount of different players that have been through (here since 2006). How many receivers are on an active roster from 06-09? How many tight ends? How many running backs? That all requires certain disciplines and elements to timing and stamina, preparation. All those things stand out. The years kind of run together. I’m not speaking for him but it feels like seven years, doesn’t feel like 12. I say this all the time, we don’t see age in each other when we see each other every day. But then when we see each other’s children, we’re like ‘wow’, that’s when we see age.”

What are your thoughts about Tampa’s tight ends and how effective they’ve been this year?

“My first thought is, one of them (Cameron Brate) was here on the practice squad and I just finished saying I hate that he got out of the building. I think they have experience. They have guys that are detailed in their routes. They have guys that are accomplished in blocking, a young draft pick (in O.J. Howard). I think that is one of the strengths of their offense. I think that Dirk (Koetter) and those guys have done a great job. When you start looking at the completions in the red area (and) third down. It’s important to what they do.”

You had a good chance to take a look at Delvin Breaux this week. How did he look to you and what’s his evaluation?

“He looked good. Next Wednesday (we need to make a decision by). He received a lot of good work this week. So we’ll see where he’s at.”

What’s next Wednesday? Is that a decision-making deadline?

“There’s a deadline. In other words, he has to be (activated), I think by 3pm.”

But you don’t anticipate him being active even for this game?

“I didn’t say a word about this game. I know that’s your job to ask but I didn’t say a word about this game.”

How important do you think field position will be in this game?

It always is. If you play the game on their side of the field, any mistake made’s magnified. If the game is being played on your side of the field it’s magnified. It always is and it always will be. It is not unique to (this game specifically). Certainly it is sometimes with bad weather it becomes that much more. But just the common thinking that if you are playing the game on one end of the field and something happens, it is like double. (Field position is) Extremely important.”

I know the trade deadline was earlier this week, do you feel like the market was more active than it has been in the past?

“It’s hard to say. I read that but I’m not really (equipped to say). It’s hard for me to measure that”.

What’s your evaluation on the offense on third down so far this year?

“It’s been sporadic. Not as good as we’d like. It’s an area I think we need to improve.”

You said last week we were talking about (Marshon) Lattimore, how much do you let your mind wander back to draft day and how it all unfolded that allowed you to get him?

“We kind of go through periodically the scenarios. The early four or five picks all of them were significant. We felt like it was going to be important for our team. We’re not even halfway through the season yet but encouraged by these guys and the way they’ve been able to acclimate themselves. They’re smart. There are some traits that are important that I think we’re receiving the benefits from. Him being what is it 11 (overall pick), we liked the player and we had a vision. Obviously the playing time experience because of his injuries was a concern probably a reason why he ended up at 11 and not earlier than that. Hopefully these guys continue to do well.”

Do you have to hold anything back with a young corner like that? In other words, he is so talented you might be tempted to have him shadow the number one every week? But is he ready for that?

“I think it’s more about the defensive fit that week and the matchups that week. Sometimes we’ll look about his size. When you say shadow a one, it’s more about body type and movement skill type. So a lot of it depends on what you’re seeing from an opponent offensively and what you’re trying to do.”

New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen

Conference Call with New Orleans

Friday, November 3, 2017

What’s been your evaluation of Marcus Williams so far?

“I think Marcus Williams has done a really good job for us. I think he has grown a lot from where he started at, to where he’s at right now just in terms of his communication in terms of his awareness of what’s going on around him and his ability to orchestrate the backend of the defense and make sure we’re all in the proper call and doing the right things. I think he’s done a really nice job for us. I am really pleased with where he is at.”

What kind of benefit is it having a guy like Kenny Vaccaro who is larger and can cover the slot?

“I think with all of these guys it’s our job as coaches to identify the things that they do well and try to put them in those positons as much as we can. Obviously Kenny (Vaccaro) is a guy that is best when he’s closer to the ball. He does have the athleticism to cover wide receivers in man to man coverage, as well as playing some of the low zone stuff that we ask him to do and does a good job in run support. I think that’s always the key is, look he’s a talented player and how do we put him in positions that we feel accentuates the things that he does really well and maybe limit some of the things that he may not do as well.”

What’s the challenge now facing an offense with an explosive passing game like the Buccaneers?

“I think this is a really explosive offense that we are facing this week. I think they have talented receivers and top tight ends that have the ability to get vertical down the field and catch the football. I think the quarterback plays really well and he has the ability to extend plays and create things off of rhythm. It’s obviously a huge challenge for us, specifically for our backend guys of making sure we understand the types of routes we’re going to get and the types of plays that we’re going to see. I think this is probably going to be the best offense we’ve faced in a while and it’ll be a good challenge for us.”

Why did you use the five lineman package against the Bears last week?

“One of the things is we felt like it was going to be more of a run-heavy team that we were facing last week and we thought being able to get the extra defensive line player down there to hopefully help stop the run would benefit us in the game. Every week we’re going to go in and start on Mondays and try to get a feel for the team that we’re playing and then we’ll try to put a gameplan together and utilize everybody that we can utilize to try and stop the opponent and last week we felt like that was something that would be beneficial to us.”

Does that package affect the opponent mentally, since you are daring them to pass more than run?

“I think it’s a little bit of both, I think anytime you can throw a new little wrinkle at the offense without being too complicated for yourself, I think it makes them work on Sundays and there is no magical defense that you can throw out there that’s like oh my gosh, there’s no way we understand how to operate against this. It’s just you’re trying to always create stress on the offense whether it be with the personnel package, whether it be with a certain coverage or maybe a certain type of pressure.”

Can you estimate how many times you used five defensive lineman last week?

“I wouldn’t be able to give you that answer off the top of my head, but I’d say at least a dozen or more snaps in the game that we used that package.”

Does your mind wonder to the draft, how everything fell in line for you to draft Marshon Lattimore?

“Quite honestly, I don’t really think about that process as much as I’m constantly focused on how we are going to continue to get this guy better and how are we going to continue to improve as a defense. I’m obviously happy that things happened the way that they did and we were able to get the players that we drafted, because I think all the players that we drafted on the defensive side of the ball will be productive players for us, not only now, but in the future. We don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about why things happened the way they did, we just take the tools that we have available to us and try to do the best that we can. I think our guys have done a pretty good job of coming in getting themselves ready to play and being productive.”

How has Delvin Breaux looked this last week?

“I think Delvin’s done a good job, I think he’s continuing to work himself into shape and getting ready to go. Obviously, that process is kind of an ongoing process and Coach Payton always evaluates that and when he feels like it’s time for him to go then we’ll have him ready to roll. It was good to get him out this week.”

How tough is it to compare a guy’s practice ability when other guys have shown game ability?

“Obviously practice is not the game, we certainly don’t want to do anything that disrupts what we’ve been able to do over the last five weeks of the season and we feel comfortable with where we are at, yet at the same time you can never have enough good players. We are constantly trying to improve our defense and look we have young guys that are out here on the practice squad, we have guys that maybe have been active, but we’re in the process and the business of player development. We are continuing to develop all the football players on the team, all 63, when you count the 53 active roster guys and the 10 practice squad players, actually 11 this year with Alex’s (Jenkins) addition.”

How have you seen Craig Robertson step up since Alex Anzalone went down?

“Craig has been the type of guy that we have always expected Craig to be. Craig just like he did last year when he was called upon to step in and play and be a starter for us, he prepares himself extremely hard. It’s very, very important to him, he’s trying to do everything to help this football team win and that’s just the type of guy he is, the unselfishness that he has. Would he have wanted to be the starter the whole time? I’m sure he did, but he understood what his role was and he accepted his role and did the best that he could when he was asked to primarily a special teams player and then when he’s called upon he’s come in and done a good job and in our league this is a backup players league and guys have to be able to step in when others go down and perform at the same or higher level. I think that’s what’s Craig’s done.”