Something that's been notably absent over the first six days of Saints training camp: Deep balls and explosive plays. That changed on Day 7.
There were multiple plays that'd have gone for 30-plus yards, starting with a Jake Haener bomb to Chris Olave that'd have likely been a 60-yard touchdown. We also saw Spencer Rattler find Mason Tipton for a 50-yard TD and a 35-yard TD run by Velus Jones Jr. to close out the day. The Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert broke it all down on WWL Radio in his daily notebook segment.
"A lot of chunk plays, big plays," Hebert said. "Old-school you might call it, oh, that was a bomb. I don’t know, to me if it’s over 40-45 yards that’s a bomb to me, but 60-yard touchdown bombs, so you see those type of plays, but I thought they were all able to make plays, even in the RPO game, as far as the quarterbacks running."
Hear Bobby Hebert's full breakdown in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
One thing that's been very evident over the first week of practice is that Kellen Moore's offense will emphasize QB run elements, with both Rattler and Shough taking off frequently on either designed runs or RPO concepts. Having QBs with a legit threat to take off will be a bit different for Saints fans.
“If you can do that now and then it keeps the defense contain guys, the outside guys, the edge guys honest where, no, the quarterback is not always just going to hand it off on the RPO, you have to honor it," Hebert said, "and that’s when the running back can hit it and get it inside of him.”
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On Velus Jones
"The most impressive run of the camp and I think you’re going to see him in the preseason games, is Velus Jones Jr., it’d have been about a 35-yard touchdown. I think that’s been the longest splash run that we’ve had so far in camp. … He’s that guy that was in Chicago's camp, I believe, last year, three years out of Tennessee, but to me, he’s explosive and it’s the reason why he’s competing.”
Running up-tempo offense
“All the quarterbacks, they’re all doing a great job of this, that being Haener, Rattler and Shough, the up-tempo, they’re getting in and out of the huddle and it’s not like 2-minute offense at times. It’s like, they might run a play then run another play, then get in the huddle, but it’s really up-tempo. It’s not like milking the clock, even though I think sometimes we’re running the ball good and we might be playing a team where the perception is they’ve got more talent than us, let’s milk the clock and just have a close victory.”