With six practices in the books, the Saints are more than halfway through the opening installation stretch of training camp, and by the time they scrimmage the Jacksonville Jaguars next week, they’ll have worked through the entire playbook.
It’s still early, but enough has happened through Week 2 to start sorting out who’s popping, who’s lagging and where the clearest trends are forming. The overall feel around camp has been strong.
The work on the field? Not always.
Unless you’re into watching a defense smother people.
The first group to jump out includes Chase Young, Kool-Aid McKinstry, Erik McCoy, Juwan Johnson and Kelvin Banks Jr. In different ways, each has been steady and productive, with the kind of consistency that stands out in camp setting.
There are also veterans who haven’t quite hit that level yet. Zach Wilson, Kendre Miller, Noah Fant, Anfernee Jennings and Tyree Wilson fall into that bucket.
As Sean Payton used to say, you don’t have to see it every day from veterans, but you do need to see it at some point. That’s the standard here too.
Special teams has taken a big step forward. Ryan Wright has brought a major upgrade to the punting game, using a booming right leg and showing good touch on placement kicks inside the 10.
In the kicking battle, Charlie Smythe and Tanner Brown have both been sharp, each showing the kind of range that reaches 60-plus yards and the consistency to make this a real competition. That battle should be decided in preseason games, and it looks like it could go right down to the finish.
However it ends, the winner will have earned it. The Saints have gone from shaky there to maybe having a real strength.
In the backfield, the Alvin Kamara and Travis Etienne pairing is still being sorted out. So far, Etienne has handled most of the first-team early-down work, while Kamara has been the first choice on third down and in passing situations. It still feels fluid, but it would be a surprise if this turns into a true Kamara-Mark Ingram-style 50-50 split.
The depth behind those two has some names in the mix. Devin Neal, Audric Estime, Ty Chandler and C.J.
Donaldson have all flashed, though this may come down to special teams as much as anything else. There’s usable depth here, especially if Miller can stay healthy.
Conditioning has also been a clear positive. Kellen Moore said the team crushed the annual pre-camp conditioning test “out of the park,” and that has shown up in practice.
The group looks faster, and several players arrived in noticeably leaner shape, including Chris Olave, Kool-Aid McKinstry and Davon Godchaux. Moore’s second team looks leaner and quicker than his first, and that has helped the Saints move through his high-tempo sessions with ease.
A lot of practices have wrapped early.
If there’s one player who has separated himself from everyone else, it’s Chase Young. He’s been the best player on the roster, and it hasn’t been close.
He started Tuesday’s padded session by pancaking Kelvin Banks Jr. in one-on-one pass rush work, then kept rolling in team drills by stuffing Travis Etienne on a first-down run and later stopping him again on a dump-off to the left flat. Brandon Staley has asked Young to take on more leadership this year, and he has clearly leaned into that.
He looks more comfortable, more confident and like a player ready to explode.
Tyler Shough’s camp has been uneven overall, but his arm talent has shown through. He’s earned praise for his leadership away from the field, and Justin Reid pointed out how catchable his throws are.
Shough knows how to feather the ball and take some torque off when he needs to, matching his passes to the route instead of forcing everything. When a receiver drops one of his throws, it usually isn’t because the ball was thrown into the dirt.
His completion rate is down, but the accuracy of his passes isn’t the issue.
The offense, as a whole, is still sorting itself out while Etienne, Fant, Jordyn Tyson and David Edwards get worked into the mix. That kind of adjustment period makes sense this early, but the Saints did spend the offseason trying to add explosive playmakers, and those plays have been scarce. Sloppiness has been part of the problem too, with dropped passes, errant snaps and shaky blocking stalling too many drives.
There was at least a little spark in Tuesday’s padded practice. Spencer Rattler connected with Barion Brown on a deep ball, and Alvin Kamara broke a run up the middle. Those kinds of plays have been the exception rather than the rule, though.
The run game has been quiet as well. There’s only been one padded practice, so the sample is thin, but the rushing attack has been underwhelming so far.
Kamara and Neal each had big runs on Tuesday, but overall there hasn’t been much room to work with. That could be a sign of the Saints’ improved run defense more than anything else.
Time will tell.
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