Another story from Gus !
A nice breezy afternoon welcomed Saints fans as they watched their Black and Gold undergo the day’s lone practice. It was one of the better days of camp for the Saints offense and once again the defense showed they continue to improve.
“I thought over all it was a pretty physical practice. I was pleased,” head coach Sean Payton said after workout concluded. “Both sides of the ball did a good job responded. I thought we handed the heat pretty well.”
“It was kind of back and forth. I thought Drew did some good things. I thought we caught the ball. I thought we blocked up front pretty well in the pass drills. I thought the defense played real well in the run drill, you know the full contact period we had. I though defensively we did a real good job. I thought it was a physical practice.”
A trio of officials from the Big 12, CUSA, and NFL refereed the practice and will be in town through Saturday’s Black and Gold game.
BREES IMPRESSIVE
The Saints defense controlled the line of scrimmage most of the time the offense attempted to run the football. CB Usama Young made a nice open field tackle on a sweep Reggie Bush, wrapping him up by the ankles.
When it came time to passing the football, quarterback Drew Brees put on a clinic especially during one team period going three for three, tossing amazingly accurate passes. WR Marques Colston snagged a pass thrown in between LB Scott Shanle and CB Tracy Porter for a first down. Two plays later, Brees hit Colston throwing to his back shoulder just past the first down marker with CB Jabari Greer draped all over him for the completion. On the next play, Brees pumped left and then threw deep for a streaking Robert Meachem who made a great catch for an 80-yard touchdown.
“He’s just a perfectionist and that comes out in his play. He’s a guy that works extremely hard,” said Colston after practice of how he’s come to expect the steadiness of Brees’s arm. “That’s the one thing that Drew is really great at is putting the ball in a position where only his guy can get it. You know he’ll throw it in some tight coverage every now and again, but his guys are the only ones that can make a play on the ball.”
GRUDEN IMPRESSED
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and new Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden was out on the practice fields observing Payton’s Saints. Gruden into through Friday was brought in to talk to the team and sit in on some meetings to provide his insight.
One of those meetings lasted three hours with Payton and quarterback Drew Brees, a player Gruden said after practice, was someone he couldn’t wait to see practice. “Brees had a chance to sit in on a meeting today. We met for about three hours at lunch time just going over and talking football,” Payton said of some of the things the former Bucs coach did on Thursday.
“What people don’t see is Drew Brees behind the scenes. He is on top of things as you can imagine. This is very important to him, every snap, the outcome of every play,” Gruden said of the Saints starting quarterback. “He is a great competitor. Fearless guy and he’s a tremendous leader. You couple that with his talent and his instinctiveness, and the fact that he’s a lot better athlete then people think you have what you have, a superstar quarterback.”
Gruden who answered some questions from media after practice, believes the Saints have a chance to make some noise this season thanks to Brees and the additions made in the offseason.
BUMBS AND BRUISES
RB Mike Bell suffered a bruised hip in the practice but isn’t expected to miss much time if any according to Payton. “I think he’s going to be fine. We’ll take a look at him, thought he had a pretty good practice.”
WR Adrian Arrington was full go. The receiver had been limited the last couple of days as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
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