Saints have third straight indoor afternoon workout

Written by Les East | Sunday, 02 August 2009 19:20 | Saints News

The team has held three of its first five practices indoors even though each was scheduled to be outside. The change of venue has deprived fans of three opportunities to watch the workouts.

In three days, rain has disrupted training camp as much as it did in the last three years at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., combined.

"The one time last year was the first time we really had to cancel a practice and go into that gymnasium," coach Sean Payton said after Sunday's lone workout. "There were two other practices that we cut a little short. That was pretty good, considering the rain they're getting now."

• Sean Payton post-practice transcript

Rain has been heavier in Jackson than it has been on Airline Drive, according to Payton, who sid he has kept tabs on the weather in Jackson.

"From what I hear," Payton said, "the groundskeeper there said we wouldn't have been able to practice outside there yet because of the amount of rain that they've had."

Payton said he doesn't plan to move any of the scheduled indoor practices to the outside to make up for the ones moved inside, though that is subject to change.

"Forget about the rain for a second," Payton said, "and this gave us a chance to get in here a little bit and get out of the sun for x number of practices. We still got our work in in the humidity and the heat and there's still a changeup by coming into this place."

Payton was jokingly asked if he had made a three-year pact with the devil to keep the rain away from Jackson.

He laughed and said, "It is a little funny."

New Orleans will try again to practice outside for its 8:50 a.m. practice Monday. That practice is scheduled to be open to the public, weather permitting, and rain has not been an issue in the morning. Monday's second practice, beginning at 4:20 p.m., will be indoors and closed to the public.

Sunday's practice didn't feature as many skirmishes as the afternoon practice Saturday, but was intense nonetheless.

"I like to see what we're doing right now," Payton said. "I think the intensity has been good. I think that's part of training camp and we'll be smart and judicious about the tempo in each drill that we have. We make sure that we define it with our players so there's no gray area. I think it's been good."

The intensity of the work caught the eye of ESPN's Chris Mortensen, whose bus tour of NFL training camps stopped at Airline Drive on Sunday. New Orleans is one of 22 teams he will see during his tour.

Mortensen said he also was impressed with the teaching technique of new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams as well as the depth in the secondary.

"If anybody can't notice the change in culture (on defense)," Mortensen said, "they're ignorant."

He added that "on paper" the Saints have a tough schedule, but "they just need to be in the top 12 on defense to be special."

The intensity showed up in a blitz pickup drill. RB Reggie Bush held his own with LB Marvin Mitchell up to the whistle, but as the whistle was blowing, Mitchell lifted Bush off the ground and tossed him onto a pad that serves as the quarterback in the drill. Bush ripped his helmet off and threw it to the ground.

Bush got frustrated a couple of more times, tossing the football in the direction of DE Charles Grant and DT Remi Ayodele after each rode him hard at the end of a running play.

Bush had a good moment on the first play of seven-on-seven drills as he got behind LB Scott Shanle for a long touchdown pass from Drew Brees. Later in the team drills, the offense ran the same play, but Shanle tipped away a slightly underthrown ball.

For the second consecutive practice, Ayodele worked with the first team because Kendrick Clancy was sidelined by back spasms. Payton said he hopes Clancy can return to practice Monday.

WR Adrian Arrington (hamstring) participated in a walkthrough at the start of practice, but was held out of drills. There were two additions to the injury list - LB Joe-Lonn Dunbar (mild hamstring) and TE Dan Campbell (finger) - but neither was serious.

RB Mike Bell made a nice 10-yard run, but lost the ball as a group of defenders pulled on the ball. S Chris Reis recovered the fumble.

G Shawn Flangan and Dunbar got into a brief altercation at the end of a play.

Brees threw his first two interceptions of camp as Jabari Greer jumped in front of Devery Henderson to grab a pass over the middle in seven-on-seven drills, and in team drills Randall Gay took the ball away from WR Marques Colston on a pass over the middle.

Gay later had tight coverage when he broke up another Brees pass intended for Colston.

Greer stepped in front of WR Rod Harper, but dropped what should have been an interception of Mark Brunell.

TE Buck Ortega dropped a pass from Joey Harrington and Henderson dropped a pass from Brees.

Harrington later hooked up with Lance Moore for a nice completion down the middle of the field.

Matt Simon made a sliding catch and a diving catch of passes from Harrington.

TE Billy Miller made a fingertip grab of a dump-off pass from Brunell.

WR Paris Warren reached high to make a nice catch of a pass from Harrington.

Colston got open deep behind CB Tracy Porter, but Brees overthrew him.

Rookie S Chip Vaughn had good coverage on WR Paris Warren and made a strong tackle for a very short gain after a completion from Harrington.

Harrington made a good move to step up in the pocket and avoid the pass rush, but his dump-off pass was dropped by RB P.J. Hill.

WR Robert Meachem made a nice adjustment on a Brees pass to his back shoulder at the sideline and turned up the field for a touchdown as Porter's momentum carried him out of bounds.

Payton said there was nothing new to report on the contract negotiations with first-round draft choice Malcolm Jenkins.

Payton said the only limitation the team experiences when it moves indoors is its inability to have normal punting drills because of the ceiling. They use a JUGS gun to transport the ball to punt returners.

Nearly 20 minutes after practice ended, as the final interviews were concluding in the near-empty indoor facility, Brees and Moore continued to play pitch and catch.

• Al Dupuy's practice observations

Comments (1)

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written by Good stuff from Harrington, August 05, 2009

Nice to see him doing well, even if it is just training camp. It's good to have a QB like him waiting in the wings.

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