METAIRIE, La. — I’ll have a lengthy column in the next few days on New Orleans Saints’ Malcolm Jenkins and how he’s making the transition from cornerback to safety, but first we’ve got a bit of news on the first-round pick from 2009.

Jenkins missed Saturday morning’s minicamp practice because of a knee contusion, coach Sean Payton said. Jenkins had worked as the first-team free safety in Friday’s sessions. But Payton said Jenkins bumped knees with a teammate Friday afternoon. Payton also said the injury is minor and he said it was possible Jenkins could practice this afternoon or in Sunday morning’s final minicamp practice.

A few other observations:

• Just overheard former New Orleans quarterback Bobby Hebert, who is sitting right behind me, bring up a good point on his show on WWL Radio. The Saints presently have Chase Daniel working as their holder. It’s been obvious Friday and Saturday that there are some issues there. Daniel, a reserve quarterback, has had trouble handling some snaps. Besides that, Daniel probably is going to be the third quarterback this season and the Saints don’t want to have to use a game-day roster spot on a holder. Backup quarterback Mark Brunell handled the holding duties last year, but has not been re-signed. The Saints may bring in a veteran quarterback at some point and that player could also be a holder. But, ideally, the Saints would like punter Thomas Morstead to handle the holding duties. The Saints didn’t have Morstead do that last season because they wanted to allow him to concentrate on punting. But it makes a lot of sense for a punter to be the holder because he and the kicker have lots of time to work together during practice.

Read the rest of the story here.

By Mike Triplett, The Times-Picayune

June 03, 2010, 1:44PM

New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey will be participating in this weekend’s minicamp, according to General Manager Mickey Loomis.

It’s not clear if Shockey will be limited at all after he suffered an apparent seizure in the team’s weight room following a practice last Thursday. Neither the Saints nor Shockey or his representatives have offered many details about his diagnosis or any future concerns.

Shockey stayed overnight in the hospital for some tests and observation last Thursday night, but he was apparently in good condition and insisted via his twitter account that he’ll be fine.

Teammate Darren Sharper, who visited Shockey in the hospital, said the doctor described Shockey’s episode as a seizure. But Shockey later tweeted that it “wasn’t a seizure!!! But a hell of a scare!!”

Shockey’s health will obviously be a much-discussed topic on the first day of minicamp Friday.

Love the way video ends!! WHO DAT!

By Mike Triplett, The Times-Picayune

June 02, 2010, 6:32PM

The war of words between Saints safety Darren Sharper and Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe appeared to escalate on Wednesday when Sharper didn’t react well to being compared to terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

The two friends and former teammates have been trash-talking back and forth via their Twitter accounts for the last few weeks, helping to generate some extra buzz for their nationally-televised Week 1 Thursday night showdown in the Superdome. But Sharper said Shiancoe went too far Wednesday when he posted a photo of Bin Laden with a No. 42 written on his chest and the words “I’m Darren Sharper” coming out of his mouth.

Read the rest of the story here.