The New Orleans Saints held one of their lightest practices of the 2025 training camp on Wednesday, but there was a good reason for that.
The Saints will be taking this roadshow on the road for their final day in California, heading over to Carson for a joint practice with the Rams. The wheels have been in motion throughout the week in terms of managing the logistics, with Kellen Moore making the official announcement after the late-afternoon practice session.
"It’ll be an awesome, awesome setup, really fired up for that," Moore said. "Obviously any time you get a chance to team up with another team, you go through a joint practice, you just go through so much situational football, play against someone different."
It'll be the first joint practice session for the Saints since 2023, but not for lack of trying. The Saints were scheduled to hold joint practices with the 49ers last season, but they were called off at the last moment due to health. The Chargers were originally scheduled to practice against the Rams this week but called those sessions off for the same reason.
Moore has worked in a practice against Sean McVay in the past, back as a member of the Cowboys, and spoke highly of his fellow coach and how he runs these sessions. The practice will start at 11 a.m., significantly earlier than the other Saints practices in California, and will be closed to the public. Moore said the practice will feature 60% first-teamers with the quarterbacks rotating in. The added workload will make for some interesting decisions as the team travels back to New Orleans and rolls into their preseason Week 2 matchup with the Jaguars.
"You’re going to go against the best of the best in a controlled environment, so there’s a little bit of player safety added to this and so yea, it’ll be a lot of reps," Moore said. "It’ll basically be a full game for our 1s tomorrow … and then we’ve got a few days before Jacksonville and so we can assess that at that point.”
TAKING ATTENDANCE
Not many changes from a health perspective on Wednesday, though WR Bub Means was sent to season-ending injured reserve due to an ankle injury suffered against the Chargers.
Here are the players I didn't see taking part in the action:
- CB Alontae Taylor (groin)
- RB Devin Neal (hamstring)
- S J.T. Gray (hamstring)
- Edge Jasheen Davis
- LG Trevor Penning (foot)
- OT Josiah Ezirim
Davis missed his second consecutive practice with an undisclosed injury. Ezirim's absence was excused, Moore said. Penning and Taylor are expected to miss extended time in camp with their injuries.
QB WATCH
There's really not a ton to report about the QBs on a day where there were only 20 total reps of full team drills. Tyler Shough went with the 1s, but it was rattler leading the end-of-game 2-minute drill to close out the day.
We did see 7-on-7 work for the first time in several weeks, and it was a reminder that Rattler simply looks more effective that Shough in those drills. I don't know if it's a vision thing -- there's no mass of humanity obscuring eyelines -- but the ball just flies out of his hand in those drills. I can't say the same for Shough, though he did complete three of his four passes, including a nice ball to Brandin Cooks. It also seemed like the Saints were working on new concepts based on some of the misses. That's a bit of a guess by me.
Even with the light workload I thought this was one of Rattler's sharper practices in a while. He completed his first 11 passes of the day, including 7-on-7, before an incompletion targeting Kevin Austin in the end zone that could've been easily been called DPI against Rezjohn Wright. There were no refs on hand to make that determination. One of those throws was an aggressive read up the seam targeting Cooks for what would've been a 30-plus-yard gain. I'd really like to see more of that as we go forward.
The day ended on a sour note, though, with another double-digit-play drive ending without points. It was an end-of-game 2-minute scenario, though there was no visible scoreboard so we can only guess at the actual time usage. Rattler moved the ball into the red zone with short passes that stopped the clock and with the Saints defense playing off to protect the end zone. The offense converted their first third down after an effective hard count caused Bryan Bresee to jump offsides, turning a 3rd and 6 into a 3rd and 1. The offense also converted a 4th and 4 on a stick route to Juwan Johnson over the middle of the field. The clock ran out, though, and Rattler's final heave into the red zone from the 15 came down in the hands of Julian Blackmon, the second straight day the safety ended practice with a pick. It again appeared like there was a foul in the end zone, but I digress.
As far as Shough, there's just not a ton else to say. He completed 5-of-9 attempts, which included a nifty shovel pass to Jack Stoll at the goal line that went for a TD. The play looked similar to what the Chiefs have run with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
It'll be interesting to see what the split is for Rattler and Shough in Thursday's joint session, as well as who starts the preseason game on Sunday.
NIFTY MOVES
I just mentioned the Shough shovel above, but that wasn't the only wrinkle we saw on the day. Rewinding back to 7s, it was Rattler finding Mason Tipton on a route working back to the QB, with the WR alertly pitching the ball to Velus Jones Jr., who streaked up the edge of the field for a touchdown.
Based on the reaction of the offense I don't think was a called play, moreso something that's baked into the offensive set if the opportunity presents itself. Just a reminder that there's a lot to this offense we still don't know yet.
COOKS-ING
I wouldn't say Brandin Cooks got off to a roaring start in this year's camp, but his targets have been increasing over the past week-plus and Wednesday was no exception. Cooks was targeted four times with three catches. He's going to be an important part to this offense.
STAR?
The star position is vitally important to Brandon Staley's defensive scheme, his hybrid version of the nickel, and to this point we haven't talked much about it. That's because Alontae Taylor jumped into that role from the start and there's not much debate whether he can excel there. But that changed this week with Taylor missing the past two practices with injury. Who fills in? Will there be an open competition?
Moore says yes, so we'll have to wait and see how it develops, but it was veteran Ugo Amadi getting the first-team reps in this practice session. I expect safety Terrell Burgess to get a go there as well.
OH, HEY FOSTER
Foster Moreau isn't practicing at this point, but that doesn't mean he's absent. Moreau was standing along the sidelines for this practice. I know that because late in the day there was a false start on the offense, and there seemed to be some confusion as to whether that would result in a 10-second runoff, which would've ended the scenario.
The answer was no, and Foster yelled that to the defense. The clock was stopped, so it was simply a 5-yard penalty. He also implored the defense to have some "football IQ," though I may be editing that statement for language.
Just a funny moment to close out the day, and as we wait for Foster to get back on the field to bolster a notably thin TE room. Moore said this week that both Moreau and Taysom Hill are still a ways off.
