Derek Carr had an excellent Day 9 of Saints training camp. Talking about that and much more from Saturday's action.
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00:00 Hello everyone and happy Saturday to you. John Hendricks here for Saints News Network
00:05 coming at you with another recap of Saints training camp. Day nine, we're moving along.
00:11 We're about to get into double digits. It was all fun. A lot of tempers flared up today.
00:16 A lot of good action to cover. Not all good. We'll get into it very shortly, but first
00:21 we want to obviously give a major shout out to Justin Burgess of Ben Pro for sponsoring
00:26 today's show. Again, if you have a business that's in the greater New Orleans region,
00:30 you know this, give them a call, whether it's employee benefits or any type of insurance
00:36 needs, give them a call. 504-888-8038. That's Justin Burgess over at Ben Pro. Tell them
00:42 John Hendricks sent you. All right, so action. Let's start with the bad. So the first part
00:49 of it is that Benjamin ruptured his Achilles. This happened in kind of just drills, working
00:57 with the running backs and the quarterbacks inside session. Just came up, ruptured his
01:02 Achilles, had to take a cart ride off. That's tough to see when it's not a non-contact injury.
01:08 It's totally unfortunate. I mean, Benjamin, especially with the Camara stuff, probably
01:12 could have maybe been the RB3 with Camara being out, but now that's probably going to
01:17 fall on Kirk Merritt, or maybe they do something else there that could be a couple of options
01:22 that present itself. So that's not something that you want to see. As far as attendance
01:27 goes, look, still no Anders Peet, still no Calvin Throckmorton. Throckmorton's dealing
01:32 with an elbow injury. Did get James Hurst back today. And then obviously a few guys
01:37 that had veteran rest days as well. But where the concern comes in is mainly about some
01:43 of the guys. So who wasn't there? Brian Berset wasn't there, Peet. And then obviously we
01:50 mentioned about Throckmorton as well, and then Cesar Ruiz. So Ruiz was a rest day. Brian
01:56 Berset is dealing with a calf injury. It's considered to be minor, but he was held out
02:01 of practice today, as well as Demario Davis. We saw him during stretch, but then Dennis
02:06 Allen saying after practice that he went for imaging on it, and he doesn't believe it's
02:10 to be anything serious. Should be minor. Injury's starting to kind of pile up. So in addition
02:16 to that, look, Traquan Smith, Rashid Shahid, both left practice due to a groin injury.
02:26 And the concern for Shahid is he already had dealt with this in minicamp. He had a groin
02:30 injury in minicamp. Now it's back. Those are a pesky injury, and they're probably going
02:35 to hold him out a little bit. We'll see how that kind of plays out. Concerns obviously
02:40 for Demario. Hopefully that's not anything lingering, but the offensive line is getting
02:45 very depleted. And at one point during practice today, Kendre Miller got hit. I mean, this
02:50 is well after the play. I mean, he's running downfield, plays over, somebody hits him.
02:54 I'm not going to speculate and say who it was. Somebody hits him. He's down on the field.
02:58 At first we thought it was a concussion or anything, but apparently it's related to the
03:02 jaw. Dennis Allen saying it was a jaw injury, possibly something related to TMJ, something
03:09 to obviously pay attention to. So injuries suck. They're not a good part of the game.
03:15 And for the Saints team, they've dealt with a good bit already. And so now it's one of
03:20 those things we're going to have to see what this team looks like when they take on the
03:23 Chiefs for their first preseason game. But not an ideal day in terms of injuries and
03:28 guys who left and guys who weren't there. Pete's dealing with a strain quad. Calvin
03:35 Drackmorton has an elbow injury. We don't know the extent of that, but we'll try to
03:39 get some updates for that. But as far as other things that happened, look, Tempter's kind
03:44 of flared up a little bit today. You had a couple of instances, team worked on one-on-ones,
03:49 you had indoor red zone drills in seven-on-seven, and then you had obviously some team drills,
03:55 like a couple spats happen, you know, not spat between these two, but Isaac Yidam and
04:01 Chris Alabe jawing at each other a little bit after reps and such. That kind of trickled
04:06 over a little bit. You got Kiki Kute and Len Bowden Jr. going at it after, I'm sorry, Kiki
04:12 Kute and Lonnie Johnson Jr. going at it a little bit after a rep. Coolers' heads prevailed
04:19 there. And then obviously the biggest one was Malcolm Roach and Tommy Kramer. Kramer
04:24 knocked his helmet off in a pass rush, or just rushing and getting after it. Roach took
04:29 exception to it, did one of those open hand slaps, cooled off after that. But, you know,
04:35 Tempter's flare, it's training camp, pads were on today and such. I mean, it's just
04:40 one of those environments, right? And so let's talk about the good. Talk about the really
04:45 good. Derrick Carr did not have a great day yesterday. It was a little bit strugglesome,
04:50 missed some throws and all that. But again, we've talked about it, Carr's talked about
04:53 it. There are going to be some times where in practice you just try different things,
04:57 all this other stuff. But today he looked excellent inside in the red zone. He went
05:01 six for six. He hit four touchdowns in the process. So again, I charted him. It's all
05:07 on Saints.media, si.com/NFL/Saints. Very lengthy review today. Again, most of these are over
05:14 2000 words. Like I said, grab a cup of coffee, read up. I put it as detailed as possible
05:20 just so you feel like you're not missing out on anything. So, you know, but he hit touchdowns
05:25 angle route to Alvin Kamara working against Zach Vaughn. He also had a another one to
05:32 Chris Lave up the scene, Foster Morrow up the scene. Those are two one and I love Fosters
05:37 because he ended up spiking the ball, like not spiking, but he dunked the ball while
05:44 the defense is right there on the back wall. Really interesting. And then the other one
05:48 was to Keith Kirkwood. So pretty cool. I mean, you definitely want to see those types of
05:54 things. I think that car, you know, one of the big knocks on him is the red zone execution.
05:59 And I get it. It's seven on seven. You can look at it the other side and said, well,
06:03 the defense wasn't good, all this other stuff. But look, if he cars doing bad, it's just
06:09 like a catch. Twenty two. If cars doing bad, you're saying defense is good or car stinks.
06:15 I mean, so just pick your poison. I take away that car had a much better day than he did
06:20 the day before, and he did extremely well in the red zone. Take that for what it is
06:25 from a guy who's covered this team over ten years. It's practice. I get it. But he did
06:31 a great job. He also came back. He did some really good things in one on one. Couple plays
06:35 to highlight there for you. First one, Alante Taylor working against Chris Lave had a nice
06:40 little pick in the end zone because they were working kind of out of this this fifteen yard,
06:44 twenty yard range in red zone, a lot of fade routes and stuff. Lante got the better of
06:48 Chris Lave in one of the first plays. But a lot of it came back. He made it outstanding.
06:54 It's a fade route to the right sideline end zone and it makes a one handed grab near the
06:59 corner. It was just absolutely beautiful on Alante. So it was really cool to see that.
07:04 Look, I think when you look at it again, a lot of success in one on one's team drills,
07:10 a little bit different. You know, some of them produce some good things. I think the
07:16 team had some good pass rush going. You know, Cam Jordan, Peyton Turner, all the guys that
07:21 we normally talk about, Tano passing. He's a guy that I think people are sleeping on
07:25 a little bit. And I said this a long time ago that even with things changing in this
07:30 pass rush that I believe he has more of an opportunity to take some reps and some snaps
07:34 for this defense. He looked good today and, you know, a lot of players really stood out.
07:41 So I think A.T. Perry had one of his best practices of training camp. He's playing with
07:45 a lot more confidence, got a lot of passes. There's one route where I don't know what
07:49 happened, but there was nobody around him within 15 yards. I mean, he was just wide
07:54 open on the sideline. I mean, it's about as easy as you can get, but he made some really
07:58 good catches. He's a guy that kind of struggled. He was kind of off and on. And we've talked
08:02 about him, of course, but, you know, he really picked it up today. I think he looked exceptional.
08:07 Lucas Kroll is another one that stood out in addition to him and Carr. Kroll, man, he
08:12 had, I think, the play of the day. It was with Jake Hayner. I think, let me make sure
08:18 I get that right because three pages of notes today. So I want to make sure I've got it.
08:22 Yep, Hayner was the quarterback. Last team drills series for him because they went Carr,
08:28 Winston, then Hayner, and then they ran two plays apiece. So Carr had two, Winston had
08:33 two, and then Hayner had two. But it was back-to-back touchdowns for Lucas Kroll. The first one is
08:37 a back shoulder hookup because they were working again in red zone. Man, he made a one-handed
08:43 grab right and left side working against JT Gray. Just a beautiful catch, beautiful hookup.
08:51 We talked about Hayner, how good he's looked. And then on the next play, Kroll gets another
08:54 touchdown off of a rollout. So look, he had a really good day. And look, I think he needs
08:59 that. It's tough because this is a guy that, you know, coming into this year, especially
09:04 pre-53-man roster projections, all that stuff, Kroll was a guy that I had his tight end for
09:12 because I think it's really fluid. I think he could change all over the place. But, you
09:15 know, Jimmy Graham comes in, Graham might take that spot. And of course, I say that
09:19 because Taysom Hill, I mean, he was working with the tight end group again today. He's
09:23 also playing quarterback. That remains to be seen how they ultimately divvy that up
09:28 and what that looks like. But, you know, Kroll's a guy. I think this is a big, big step for
09:33 him coming in this year and obviously had an opportunity with Nick Vanette not being
09:37 here. Adam Troutman getting traded away. They bring in Foster Moreau, Jawan Johnson. Kroll's
09:42 one of those guys that, look, he needs to keep this going and put it on in the preseason.
09:48 Because again, right now, guys that flash in practice like that, it's tough to say,
09:52 where's your roster spot? Because I think they have distinct priority on the practice
09:57 squad. But of course, we'll see how that kind of plays out. I think he needs to have a really
10:01 good preseason, you know, coming up. And obviously, we're just about a week away from the Chiefs
10:06 game. So, we'll kind of keep an eye on Kroll. But he did have a good day. Same thing with
10:11 A.T. Perry. Look, receivers, again, I've talked about it. 4-5 and 6. Hasn't had the greatest.
10:18 I mean, I think it's been Trae Kwon mostly and then Keith Kirkwood. But hadn't seen too
10:22 much from James Washington. I think Brian Edwards is not having a good camp at all.
10:26 A.T. Perry's really coming along. You got Lynn Bowden Jr., Kiki Kute, and then Shaq
10:31 Davis. I mean, this is just one of those things where I think they can find these answers
10:35 out really quickly. But, you know, look, I think Kroll's in that mold. Just saying A.T.
10:41 Perry, it's going to be hard. I don't want to say he's a priority practice squad guy.
10:45 He just needs to keep putting things together and keep working. But he could also make this
10:49 roster cut really interesting. Blake Grupe ended up kicking today. He went 6-7. There
10:55 was a couple of kicks that looked a little bit iffy, but they were right on the inside
10:59 of uprights. And I got a straight on shot of it. Again, I trust my eyes to see it. He
11:04 did miss one. It bounced off the left upright. It was a long field goal attempt. But he was
11:11 6-7. Again, we still have a legitimate special teams battle. Lou Headley, not Luke, Lou Headley
11:17 looked really good today. Some of his punts had one that was just not that great, but
11:22 most of the other ones looked good. I'm really excited to see how this goes in preseason.
11:27 And I think that's the biggest takeaway because we have a few more days. We have tomorrow,
11:31 Sunday, and then obviously Monday. Everything's off Tuesday and then they'll be off Saturday.
11:35 So we'll only get a few more practices before their first preseason game. So there's just
11:40 a lot to take in. And I think that when you look at it, it's going to just be fun to watch
11:46 football again. And so I'm pretty excited. I know you're excited about it. We're excited
11:51 about it at Saints News Network. So be sure to check all of our information out.
11:54 Look, I will also say a couple other things. Jordan Houghton got some work with the first
11:58 team today, working alongside of Tyron Matthew. Some of those guys look like they had veteran
12:03 rest days. Marcus May was one of them. So those things are going to happen. And I think
12:09 they like Houghton. I pointed out in my recap that he's kind of that extra defensive back
12:13 when they run a three-man rush. And he's their extra guy when they have Paulson and Alante
12:19 and Bradley Robey out there. And they have Tyron and obviously Marcus May that hounds
12:25 that other guy. So really interested to see if he keeps things going. I think he's got
12:30 a really good chance and good outlook right now. I'd also give another thing to somebody
12:35 to watch is Landon Young. He's playing left guard right now. And just one of those things
12:40 where I asked him today that he said this is the first time he's played guard. And just
12:45 because of injuries that are happening, the team is trying to get him a little bit more
12:51 cross-trained, if you will. And so it's been good. And they're giving him more work there.
12:56 But he's a guy that we talk about this offensive line. I think it's a legitimate concern because
13:03 you've already seen the injuries. You know this team is not going to make it a full 17
13:07 plus playoffs with their full offensive line intact. It's just not going to happen. It's
13:11 very uncommon these days. The Saints just don't have great luck there either. But you
13:16 know, look, Landon Young's a guy that I think we kind of maybe sleep on, overlook. But he's
13:20 been learning a lot from Jari Evans as well. So look, again, another really good practice.
13:26 Just looking over my notes, seeing if there's anything else to hit on. I mean, there's tons
13:30 of things to talk about. So if you haven't gone, go to si.com/NFL/Saints or Saints.media.
13:35 I don't know what you're doing because I've got everything that you need to know about
13:40 practice from day nine on there in great detail to make you feel like you're there. Right.
13:45 And we got 10 tomorrow, 11 on Monday, and then we're going to be off on Tuesday. And
13:50 so we're getting close. I'm happy. I'm excited. Again, thank you to Justin Burgess of Ben
13:57 Pro for producing today's show. That's going to do it for us today. We're going to talk
14:01 about a little bit more here. And I do have some some ideas for doing some live streams.
14:05 Got a lot of cool things working right now. But again, thank you so much for your support.
14:10 Stay tuned to us. Lots more to come. I'm John Hendricks for Saints News Network signing
14:14 out.
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