Mark Ingram, running back, Saints. He’s gotten off to a very good start in camp and he’s really the only New Orleans rookie who is not being brought along slowly. You can take that as a sign that Ingram’s going to play a lot as a rookie. He’s been getting lots of first-team work in camp. He’s going to split snaps with Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles. But running back usually is an easy position for rookies to pick up. If Ingram can show he’s got the playbook down and can protect Drew Brees from blitzes, he’s going to get a lot of playing time from the start.

By Pat Yasinskas

METARIE, La. — The New Orleans Saints just put out their first unofficial depth chart. It included a few surprises, highlighted by the fact the Saints aren’t trying to hide anything.

They have veteran Olin Kreutz ahead of Matt Tennant at center. That’s a bit refreshing because that’s the way the Saints intend to go. But, the flip side is they have rookie Mark Ingram as the No. 3 running back behind Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles. I will be shocked if Ingram is not the starter, or at least the feature back, by opening day.

Read the rest of the story here.

By ANDY BENOIT

Perhaps no higher compliment was paid to this organization than the collective silence that ensued after the Saints traded a 2012 first-round pick and a 2011 second-rounder to move up and draft Alabama running back Mark Ingram 28th over all. This was a move that seemed to make little sense. The Saints already had two good runners in Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory. The former had just signed a four-year, $12 million contract and the latter was an undrafted second-year pro with a sub-$500,000 salary each of the next two years.

Some thought the Ingram pick was a sign that New Orleans would be cutting ties with Reggie Bush (Bush himself posted a goodbye on Twitter right after the pick). But equating Ingram to Bush is like equating South Dakota to Hawaii: they’re both states, but the similarities end there. Ingram is a bowling-ball-like inside runner; Bush is essentially a gadget player who sometimes takes handoffs.

Read the rest of the story here.

By Pat Yasinskas

The New Orleans Saints have signed veteran center Olin Kreutz, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Interesting move, but not surprising because it kind of fits how the Saints do business. They let veteran center Jonathan Goodwin depart via free agency. They had prepared for that by drafting Matt Tennant last year.

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By Mike Triplett, The Times-Picayune

About 10 to 15 New Orleans Saints players have stopped by the team’s practice facility today for some voluntary workouts and some long-overdue quality time with the coaching staff.

The players will officially report to training camp Thursday. The first practice is expected to take place Friday, though that still has not been announced.

Read the rest of the story here.

By Pat Yasinskas

Readiness factor: The Saints got a lot of media attention during the players-only workouts. This team did as good a job of handling the lockout as any team in the league. The workouts were well attended, and quarterback Drew Brees and linebacker Jonathan Vilma were running the offense and defense, respectively. The coaches weren’t around, but Brees and Vilma have basically been coaches on the field for the past few years, so the Saints probably weren’t getting away with too many mistakes while working on their own. It also helps that the Saints are largely a veteran team. They also have a coaching staff that’s remained mostly in place. The lockout wasn’t ideal for any team, but the Saints are probably in better shape than most as they come out of it.

Read the rest here.

By Pat Yasinskas

New Orleans Saints

1. Decide what to do with Reggie Bush. The running back/return man is scheduled to make almost $12 million and count $16 million against the cap. That’s not going to happen, but the Saints have indicated they’d like to keep Bush if they can work out a contract extension that would spread money around. The Saints drafted running back Mark Ingram in the first round, but Bush still could play plenty of roles with this team. Sean Payton has been creative with the ways he’s used Bush, who has been productive when healthy. Last year’s injury problems at running back showed the Saints can’t have enough depth at the position.

2. Make some key secondary decisions. Safeties Darren Sharper and Roman Harper are both potential unrestricted free agents, so the Saints have to make some choices. Sharper’s past his prime and is a free safety. That position now belongs to Malcolm Jenkins. Harper has been the starting strong safety and has been solid. Harper shouldn’t command huge money on the open market, and the Saints would be wise to re-sign him. If they do, they should have one of the league’s better secondaries.

read the rest here.

Here’s wishing they would have saved us all some time and skipped the explanations of what went wrong, or why things broke down once again. I really didn’t need to hear from either NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash or union head DeMaurice Smith today, telling us how very hard they worked and how they did everything in their power to try to find common ground and the path to get something accomplished in the NFL’s going-nowhere labor negotiations.

Blah, blah, blah. We know none of that is really true. Both sides in this league-versus-players stand-off only did what they wanted to do and what they were willing to do. Nothing more. The rest is just spin and trying to keep the upper hand in the public relations battle. And the blame game is beyond tiresome at this point.

ByAP

The NFL Players Association released the following statement Friday renouncing its union status:

“The NFL Players Association announced today it has informed the NFL, NFL clubs and other necessary parties that it has renounced its status as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of the players of the National Football League.

The NFLPA will move forward as a professional trade association with the mission of supporting the interests and rights of current and former professional football players.”

By AP

After 16 days of mediated talks, the NFL and the players’ union could not reach agreement on a new labor deal. The NFL released what it described as a summary of its proposal to the union:

1. We more than split the economic difference between us, increasing our proposed cap for 2011 significantly and accepting the union’s proposed cap number for 2014 ($161 million per club).

2. An entry-level compensation system based on the union’s “rookie cap” proposal, rather than the wage scale proposed by the clubs. Under the NFL proposal, players drafted in rounds 2-7 would be paid the same or more than they are paid today. Savings from the first round would be reallocated to veteran players and benefits.

Read the rest here.