There won’t be any fans in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome when the Saints host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their 2020 season opener.
Playing in an empty arena will be a new experience for most players around NFL and New Orleans’ kicker Wil Lutz got a chance to see what it might feel like when his team practiced in the Superdome Saturday night.
“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,” Lutz said. “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."
Lutz has been trying to prepare for playing games in empty stadiums throughout training camp. One of the ways he’s done that is to have his teammates taunt him during field goal attempts during practice.
“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,” Lutz said. “There's no better person to (do) it than Craig Robertson."
Robertson, a linebacker and team captain, said the fans in a packed arena can create a “white noise” making it easier to drown out individual voices.
“Now, they don't have that white noise,” Robertson said. “It's going to be an echo, you know, playing in a Superdome where there's no people. So, you're going to be able to hear you know more taunting, more this more that.”
Robertson said he and other players have tried to throw Lutz off his game but, so far, their taunts haven’t seemed to affect Lutz, who he called the "best kicker in the game." Lutz said he’s tried to adapt to the jeering by focusing on his technique.
“The best I can do is keep going through the motions, going through my setup, not changing what I do,” he said. “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.”
Lutz made 28 of his 34 field goal attempts last season including three from 50-plus yards earning a spot in the Pro Bowl. He said, however, he’s focused on trying to make sure this season is as good as 2019’s effort.
"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,” Lutz said. “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.”