Saints Camp Report: Team holds first practice in Superdome

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS POOL REPORT
SATURDAY, AUG. 29

LENGTH: 1 hour, 45 minutes

ABSENT: Emmanuel Sanders, Alvin Kamara, Cesar Ruiz, Marcus Davenport, Malcolm Jenkins, Zack Baun, Anthony Chickillo, Chase Hansen, Saquan Hampton, Andrus Peat, Ty Montgomery

RETURNED TO PRACTICE: Ryan Ramczyk

HIGHLIGHTS: The Saints went through their first practice in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome this training camp. Saturday’s session wasn’t as extensive as Friday’s scrimmage-style session. And yet the team still participated in some notable team drills despite only wearing helmets, jerseys and shorts. The defense came up with several pass breakups: Marcus Williams knocked a Drew Brees throw away from Tre’Quan Smith, C.J. Gardner-Johnson swatted away a Brees pass intended for Jared Cook. Marshon Lattimore batted a pass down to Michael Thomas from Brees. P.J. Williams broke up a pass to Smith from Brees. But Brees found his rhythm with TD passes to Cook and Smith to wrap up his team drills. The deep ball went on display for Brees as well with two passes of 45 and 50 yards to Thomas during seven-on-seven drills. Janoris Jenkins broke up a couple of passes during seven-on-sevens. There was an entertaining special teams portion where Wil Lutz connected on all of his field goals, including a 56-yarder. What made the drills interesting was how Craig Robertson heckled Lutz on his attempts in a quiet Dome atmosphere.

New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Training Camp Video Call with New Orleans Media
Saturday, August 29, 2020

Can you talk us through some of the situations you wanted to see tonight and also just what you thought overall of the work in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome?
“Look, I thought it was a pretty crisp practice. We handled a few things, from the very beginning just our pregame stretch and warm up routine. It’s the first time for a number of these guys going through that. But then it was more than just a warm up, we got situationally a handful of seven-on-seven reps. And then team wise, we got first and second down, third down and some red zone work. Kickers and punters got here early just to get a chance to kick and punt. I thought the surface, I think we’re further along. There was a couple years where you come out here and it was a little sticky, a little thick and I felt tonight was as good as it’s been for the first night we’ve been on it. Every year, there’s a new surface that’s laid down and I thought tonight was really good.”

You had Janoris Jenkins for the last couple of games at the end of the season last year. Do you see a difference in him from when you had him at the end of last year to now? Is there some kind of comfort level that helps him and do you see a difference in him?
“Yeah, obviously, I think he’s further along in the scheme. That would be fair to say. He’s a veteran player, and he’s one of those guys that plays with good football instincts. He’s got tremendous ball skills. But I think more than anything, just the experience of having been with our team now and now going into his second season.”

Can you talk about Wil Lutz’s development and how he’s come along as a pro?
“Yeah, look, he’s been real steady for us. He’s got real good leg strength. We like his get off times. I think that operation, knock on wood, has been pretty smooth. I know that he’s someone that works just like Thomas (Morstead) does, spends a lot of time in the offseason at his craft. He’s been a real good player for us and I’m glad we’ve gotten him, especially at a young age.”

Did anything dawn on you being in this building tonight like, man, this is what a game is going to feel like with nobody in the stands? And to follow that up, what is either your biggest concern or biggest thing you think you’re going to have to make sure you overcome because of that?
“I think this Mike (Triplett), we have been here and practiced here before with no fans. I told the team afterwards, ‘Look, I don’t know exactly what it’s going to feel like on gameday. I can’t control that. We can’t control that. What we can control is our energy and our execution when it comes to playing.’ Yeah, will it be different? Certainly it will be. But I think in a season like this, you spend more time, you try to spend more time on the things that you can control as opposed to the things you can’t. So I think that’ll be a little bit of getting used to for every team in this league. Again, you’re lining up and still playing a sport you love and I think the broadcast will be able to pipe in the acoustics that they need to and so I don’t think it’ll be that noticeable for the for the fan watching on television.”

On the coaching side, have you guys done anything to prepare contingencies in terms of offensive and defensive play calling in case something happens to one of you guys and someone has to step in?
“Well, we’ve discussed it, we actually have not practiced it. Hopefully, we do not face that situation and yet, we have to understand that it could arise. The one thing I mentioned to our team is we are at that point in training camp now, tomorrow is Sunday, where a true positive test, not a false positive, but a true positive test puts a player and coach in jeopardy for that opening game. And so I think it’s important for everyone to understand that.”

To follow up on Nick (Underhill’s) question, have you considered at all how you might deploy your assistant coaches in terms of where they work from differently just as a precaution during games?
“A couple things along that line. First off, with the league protocol, we’re going to be limited as to how many we can have in the box relative to the square footage in the box. So we’ll have to make an adjustment or two there. Then it really comes down to your play caller. Dennis (Allen), myself, Pete (Carmichael), whoever is involved in calling the plays. I think that change would be the most dramatic or substantial.”

Has Alvin Kamara’s absence been injury related even if you do not want to give specifics?
“Yeah, I don’t right now at this time. The same with Malcolm (Jenkins), I think there’s a few players, a handful that didn’t go tonight.”

As far as Drew (Brees’) arm strength and touch on the ball, have these last few practices been the best he’s looked in training camp to that regard so far? I was wondering your assessment of that.
“Look, that’s a fair question. I thought he was sharp tonight. I thought we were overall as a practice pretty sharp tonight on both sides of the ball. I don’t know specifically how I’d evaluate one practice versus the other. I think his decision making’s been on point. We’ve tinkered with a few new concepts, but he’s in really good shape. Yeah, at times I’ve seen him get the ball down the field maybe noticeably a little different than a year ago or two years ago. But I like the way the balls coming out. I think it’s coming out on time and obviously to the right person in the right location. That’s one of the great strengths of his.”

I asked that because I thought he had some really nice deep passes tonight.
“No, look, I think there were a couple throws tonight. We had the one where he slipped that kind of went into the air about 20 feet. So we’re not talking about that one. But yes, I think he’s had a few this last week and tonight. I think there were a couple that I can think of.”

Today’s the 15 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and y’all are practicing in here. Did you reflect on that?
“I did not. I probably should have. I felt like there was a period of time where there were so many players on our roster that were a part of that time. I came the January after (Hurricane Katrina). I was in Dallas during that August (2005), but I did not bring it up. Brian Young is here (who played on that team). There’s a few people that are part of what we’re doing right now that were here and part of that challenge, but probably not enough (to make as big a statement).”

You signed a couple defensive ends, is there anything you can elaborate on if that means anything for Marcus Davenport or any of your players?
“No. I think our objective was to…we signed a linebacker today (and) a defensive end and for us, we have got a little bit of time here before our cutdowns to look at some other players. That was really the main goal so we’ll see how it unfolds. A few of these guys we have seen before, whether in a in a practice environment with the Chargers (or on film) so it is really more of a chance to look at our depth and then and look at potential players that if they are not active roster players maybe they are practice squad candidates.”

New Orleans Saints Kicker Wil Lutz
Training Camp Video Call with New Orleans Media
Saturday, August 29, 2020

First things first, kicking an empty dome, did you get a chance to kind of just get a sense for what that’s going to be like for you this year just at tonight’s practice?
“Yeah, every day is quiet during football period, there’s not much going on. So it’s normal in that sense, but when you’re in this big, empty, 70,000 whatnot seat stadium the ball sounds a little different coming off your foot. You hear the echo, you can hear people talking. So it’s definitely different. It’s a lot better having 75,000 Who Dats yelling at you (if you are the opposition), but we’re getting used to it.”

I’m not trying to like talk smack on Georgia State here, but I mean, you played in the Georgia Dome. It’s a really big venue for…
“I know what you’re about to say (laughter).”

Look, I’ve covered a game there and there wasn’t anybody there. You can hear everything going on.
“I could hear my mom yelling for me. At least I have that going for me, but at the end of the day, I am not the only one going through it. Every kicker in this league is dealing with it. It’s a constant and everyone’s got to find a way to deal with it.”

Craig Robertson was, I saw him taunting you at practice the other day and he was like, trying to like get in your ear before the kicks. Are you kind of anticipating a little bit more of that just because it’s going to be quiet in there?
“Yeah, I asked those guys (to) do that. I think we have to find a way to prepare for something that we don’t really know what’s going to happen right now. We don’t know if there’s going to be crowd noise, we don’t know if it’s going to be quiet, we don’t know how much crowd noise if any. And so we have to find a way to get better on a daily basis with what we think is going to happen. When we’re in here with just us and another team, I would assume that every team’s going to have tactics to mess with every position on the field and so, without knowing what’s going to happen, I’m doing the best thing I can to prepare personally and those guys want me to be on my a-game so they’re going to do whatever they can to help me prepared. There’s no better person to (do) it than Craig Robertson.”

What is your normal process when you are going through a kick? I imagine you are kind of trying to drown out the noise anyways. So does anything really change for you?
“No, not much changes. Obviously, like what I talked about with Craig and some of the guys that I’ve asked that they kind of try to do their best to distract me. I can have 200,000 people screaming at me and it’s white noise versus eight guys screaming at it. Everyone knows it’s impossible to drown that out, no matter what you say. The best I can do is keep going through the motions, going through my setup, not changing what I do. In practice every day, I lock in and I kick and it’s like, next thing you know, I hit my kicks and practice is over. So I’m pretty good at getting through my work, zoning everything out, but in a game you’re not hitting seven kicks in a row. Obviously, come the first game, we’ll figure out how it’s going to go.”

Specifically on preparing for this season, you’ve had a pretty successful first couple years in the NFL. What do you try to refine to actually get better, improve from last year to this year?
“One thing that (Thomas) Morstead and I both kind of harp on is as soon as you think you’ve made it, you haven’t. Obviously, we had a great year last year, we had a really good year the year before and we’re just working to build every year. I think we have personal goals, we have team goals, and my attitude is I’ve never made it and I’m just going to keep working until I’ve made it, which I never will. So I guess that’s as well as I can answer that question is I know I’ve got to keep my head down, regardless of success or failures. Just kind of keep working.”

Is there anything specific that you’re able to say that you’re working on? are you trying to get on a percentage or distance?
“There is not a specific, right? I think the biggest thing right now is we are trying to make up for lost time. We did not have those two months as a unit to work on our timing. Right now, I do feel like we are getting close to hitting stride, but we are trying to figure out our timing right now and kind of make up for the time that we did not have in the spring. All we can do is keep working together, keep trying to mesh. And so as far as specifics, I am trying to put the ball a little more down the middle than last year. Obviously, I always want to beat my percentage (from) the year before, but there as some things that are out of your control. I am working on what I control right now and, hopefully, that leads to success.”

New Orleans Saints Defensive Tackle David Onyemata
Training Camp Video Call with New Orleans Media
Friday, August 28, 2020

I know you’ve practiced in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome before, but what was it like practicing there tonight knowing that, that’s what it’s going to look like on on gameday?
“It’s going to need a little adjusting over time. But I guess we just have to make use of what we have got here in the situation going on in the world. So, I do not really see it as a problem. It’s about just coming out here to win a game every given week.”

How much will that affect the defense? I know you are used to having those 70,000 people screaming for you? How much will that affect what you all do?
“Definitely, that’s going to play a big role. Because you know, home field advantage, you have your fans behind you. I still don’t know how that’s going to feel having the fact you’re not going to have fans in the stadium. I don’t know what the rules are going to be like if you could, you know, get like fake fans, you know, chants going or whatever. But I guess we just have to work with what we have right now.”

What have you seen in Sheldon Rankins and have you seen him using that spin move a little bit more since he’s been back?
“Definitely, he’s moving smooth. Like, I’m sure you all have seen it. He’s still the same person, nothing has changed. So it’ll be fun, having everyone out there and we’re going at it this year.”

What’s the biggest thing he’s (Sheldon Rankins) taught you? I saw you two work together a lot?
“We kind of just work together. We do blocks, we give each other simulations, so you need good looks to get good looks. So that’s what it is.”

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from him as a whole, like just being together, the whole time during practice?
“It’s about giving looks. We give good looks with each other and it’s like, it’s Ryan’s (Nielsen) drill, drills are from Ryan. So, we just give good looks and go from there.”