A Facebook memory popped up this morning for a Saints training camp practice at the Greenbrier. The weather was wonderful in WV; 68 degrees and overcast.
Fast forward to today’s session in Metairie and the weather Gods smiled down upon the players with a mild day for August in Louisiana standards. Missing the partly cloudy with a nice breeze workout was corner Grant Haley along with wide receivers Tre’Quan Smith and Deonte Harris. We saw Smith leave Tuesday’s session with a trainer and did not return.
Coach Payton told us DB Keith Washington was put on the reserve list due to a wrist injury, and that Adonis Alexander was added to roster. The new corner is wearing No. 44 and played in nine games in 2018 when he was a 6th round pick in the supplemental draft out of Virginia Tech.
ROOKIE THRIVING WITH CONTACT
When players are wearing just shells in the first few practices it’s hard to evaluate anything. Now that it is day 2 of pads, we can start talking football. A BIG guy that’s hard not to notice is rookie Payton Turner. The young man is 6ft6, 270 pounds and has been a disruption.
He sacked fellow rookie Ian Book without ever laying a hand on him. Turner launched 6ft6, 305-pound offensive lineman Kyle Murphy into the QB, causing Book to take a tumble to the ground. Its been nice to see with the physicality picking up at practice, Turner is starting to standi out.
Crawley’s a hungry dawg
Ken Crawley’s heard Coach say that adding to the outside corner position was a must and has been responding to the help-wanted ad. Another solid camp session for him was punctuated with the 1st INT off Jameis Winston. Crawley snatched the ball away on a fade throw to rookie WR Kawaan Baker.
The 28-year-old first joined the Black & Gold as an undrafted free agent out of Colorado in 2016 and earned a starting spot (for a short time) in 2018. After getting released in ’19, Crawley re-signed with the team last year.
Wil the thrill is back
Wil Lutz ‘s leg looks good. He went 6-for-6 on field goals after spending the start of camp on the non-football injury list. Holding for him was punter Blake Gillikin.
Last year was a down year for Lutz. He ended with the worst field goal percentage of his career at 82%.