I'm not a huge fan of leading off practice notes with an injury, considering it's just one thing that happened on a very busy day. That said, the trend of key players hobbling off the field is too problematic to ignore.
On Tuesday, the second day of full-padded practices, it was star WR Chris Olave walking gingerly off the field late in the final set of drills. Saints head coach Dennis Allen didn't have much information coming off the field, but said it appeared to be a hip issue after a hard fall.
Avoiding another soft tissue injury would be better than the alternative, and hopefully Olave will shake things off quickly. That said it's hard not to be concerned with mounting injuries. We haven't seen Marshon Lattimore or Bryan Bresee for several practices due to injuries, and another projected starter Nick Saldiveri just missed his first day on Tuesday.
The silver lining is that some of the more established players missing time means some younger players, Kool-Aid McKinstry for instance, can take advantage of some extra reps. But that's a small solace if this team is without key players for any extended period of time. We'll be watching closely.
━━
TAKING ATTENDANCE
We went in on this above, so no need to belabor the point. Here are the players that we didn't see on the field during Tuesday's practice:
- WR Equanimeous St. Brown (hamstring)
- CB Marshon Lattimore (hip flexor)
- RB Kendre MIller (hamstring)
- FB Zander Horvath (personal)
- G Nick Saldiveri (calf)
- DL Trajan Jeffcoat (elbow)
- DT Bryan Bresee (foot)
The list seems to have gotten longer seemingly every day, and we've only seen one player go on it and return (Shane Lemieux). Horvath's absence isn't injury related, his coach said, and he's expected to be back to work on Wednesday.
━━
PATRICK IS UP
As expected, it was veteran Lucas Patrick taking over with the 1s in place of Nick Saldiveri, and it was for the exact reasons you'd expect: On a line with new, young players at both tackle spots, an established veteran makes the most sense.
Dennis Allen has said multiple times that the game against the Bears last year with Patrick starting at center was a strong introduction and he certainly has lived up to that impression since joining the Saints.
“I think in a perfect world we’d all like our whole offensive line to be a bunch of veteran guys that's been established and played at an elite level in our league for a long period of time, but that’s not where we’re at right now," Allen said. "But yea, having an established veteran that can step in and help in the communication, yea, I think that’s beneficial."
The biggest question will come down the line when Saldiveri is ready to return. Do you shift back? I'd put my money on Patrick sticking in that job early in the season as Saldiveri continues to progress, with an eye on the young player taking over down the road.
Related
━━
THE DEFENSE'S DAY
There has been a good bit of back and forth between the offense and defense at this year's camp, but it certainly felt like the defense was the one setting the tone on Tuesday.
The offense was getting into a bit of third down work to change things up, but it often seemed like the defense was a step ahead. There were two plays in particular where this was clear, both on calls that brought speedy receivers behind the line of scrimmage on an end around. The first came in the initial set of team drills with Rashid Shaheed taking the misdirection play only to find Carl Granderson standing directly in his path. Grando sent Shaheed to the turf with teammates cheering loudly.
The same thing happened in a later set of drills, this time with Chase Young blowing it up. Derek Carr's only completion of that set was a well-run screen to Kamara. Jake Haener also delivered a good ball to Mason Tipton working back to the QB for one of the better plays of the day.
In all the Saints QBs completed just 9 of 15 pass attempts and several were checkdowns after the initial play broke down.
We'll see how things develop over the next few weeks as the offense adds more wrinkles. The misdirection wasn't misdirecting anyone on Tuesday.
━━
NASCAR FITS
I'm very intrigued to see how the Saints' NASCAR package develops this season and which DE seems to be the best fit in that role. Today we saw a few reps with Payton Turner lined up inside Chase Young, with Nathan Shepherd in the mix as the second DE. A season ago that group was dominated by Tanoh Kpassagnon, but he's unavailable due to a torn achilles.
That group put good pressure on the QB, and on one rep Cesar Ruiz was driven back into Derek Carr's lap to blow up a play. The Saints will be looking to get a rotation of pass-rushers on the field, and the more you can play inside with success, the easier that will be.
Related
LAGNIAPPE
Another fight! This time it was between Dallin Holker and Payton Turner after a scrum in the middle of the field. That's two days in a row. We'll see how many times this happens before the coaches shout it down. ... Jordan Mims keeps taking advantage of his opportunities, and that's the most you can ask from a UDFA. He flashed good vision and burst today on a toss to the outside, and he hit the circle button at one point to spin through traffic for what would've been a nice gain. I'm intrigued to see what he can show when the preseason games get here. ... It felt like Charlie Smyth had a shot to put some pressure on Blake Grupe today, with the second-year pro missing twice to close out his day on Monday. The rookie didn't quite do that, missing his final three kicks, one to the right, one short and one to the left. The final two were from 59 yards, so it's tough to be too critical. It's also seemed like this was always going to be a two-year play for the international pipeline kicker, but it felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to really get people buzzing. ... It was also a bit of a frustrating day for Matt Hayball, who sent four consecutive short kicks into the end zone during special teams drills. I'd wager he's got a stronger leg than Hedley on the whole, but that's only part of the equation for a punter and the pin-them-back part of his game didn't exactly shine today. ... I don't know if it was intentional on the head coach's part, but he certainly seemed to call out A.T. Perry today for being "fine" thus far. If Olave misses time and there are more reps to go around, I'd certainly hope to see him take advantage. ... Isaiah Foskey struggled a bit in 1-on-1 reps, but I thought he's handled himself well in team thus far. He's certainly showing out more often than he did in his rookie season. We'll see if he can keep building on that.