blacksaint

By SHELDON MICKLES
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Aug 20, 2007

CINCINNATI — Now that the New Orleans Saints have reached the halfway point of the exhibition season, actually going one-half past the mark on their five-game schedule, Sean Payton has got to start thinking about the first mandatory roster cut.

That will come a week from Tuesday, when Payton has to reduce his 85-man training camp roster to 75 players. Four days later, 22 more players will have to go — which means 32 players who were there Sunday will be gone by the Saints regular-season opener Sept. 6.

Payton and his staff have given everyone plenty of reps during a three-week training camp and three exhibition games, including Saturday’s 27-19 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy trimming down to the final 53 as some tough decisions loom.

So who’ll be in and who’ll be out? Here’s one person’s very unofficial guess at how the final roster might be shaping up position by position:

QUARTERBACK (3): Drew Brees, Jamie Martin, Tyler Palko.
Comment: Payton kept only two on the final roster last year, but there’s no way he can put Palko on waivers and get him back on the practice squad.

RUNNING BACKS (5): Deuce McAllister, Mike Karney, Reggie Bush, Aaron Stecker, Antonio Pittman.
Comment: Some think Stecker could be on the bubble, but he’s too valuable as a third-down back and special-teams performer considering Pittman is young and inexperienced.

WIDE RECEIVERS (6): Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Terrance Copper, David Patten, Lance Moore, Robert Meachem.
Comment: Copper and Patten will get lots of work in the three- and four-wide receiver sets and Moore makes it on his return ability. Injuries have slowed Meachem’s progress.

TIGHT ENDS (3): Mark Campbell, Eric Johnson, Billy Miller.
Comment: There’s not much of a debate here, although the starting position is still up for grabs between Campbell and Johnson.

OFFENSIVE LINE (9): Jammal Brown, Jamar Nesbit, Jeff Faine, Jahri Evans, Jon Stinchcomb, Jonathan Goodwin, Zach Strief, Andy Alleman, Jermon Bushrod.
Comment: If they go a little light here, Strief could be the odd man out. But only because they’d have a better chance getting him on the practice squad.

DEFENSIVE LINE [8]: Charles Grant, Brian Young, Kendrick Clancy, Will Smith, Antwan Lake, Hollis Thomas, Rob Ninkovich, Josh Cooper.
Comment: The big questions here are the injuries to Young and Ninkovich that have kept them sidelined throughout training camp.

LINEBACKERS (7): Scott Fujita, Mark Simoneau, Scott Shanle, Dhani Jones, Brian Simmons, Troy Evans, Marvin Mitchell.
Comment: The Saints have quality depth at all three positions and Mitchell, a seventh-round draft pick, sticks because of his special-teams work.

DEFENSIVE BACKS (9): Mike McKenzie, Jason David, Roman Harper, Josh Bullocks, Kevin Kaesviharn, Jason Craft, Fred Thomas, Jay Bellamy, Usama Young.
Comment: Thomas and his $1.5 million salary could be on the bubble after losing his starting job to David. But the Saints might have a tough time keeping two rookies in Young and fifth-round draft pick David Jones.

SPECIAL TEAMS (3): Olindo Mare, Steve Weatherford, Kevin Houser.
Comment: Weatherford wins a close battle with Chris Hanson for the starting punter’s job.

2theadvocate.com | Featured Saints Stories | Saints roster taking shape -- Baton Rouge, LA

saint4life
(504)