SmashMouth

Cornerbacks with widely varying experience levels opened up New Orleans Saints training camp in West Virginia nearly one month ago vying for the second starting cornerback slot opposite Keenan Lewis.

The Saints quickly whittled the battle down to two players as Champ Bailey and Patrick Robinson began rotating practice snaps with the first-team defense. In a perfect world, this battle would have been long decided.

Football is about as imperfect of a world as you'll find in sports. As a result, the Saints are no further along in their decision making than they were three weeks in deciding between the two players for the gig.

A handful of position battles headlined the opening of Saints training camp last month like cornerback, outside linebacker, center and kicker. Some battles, like center and kicker, are seemingly all square as we enter this most significant dress rehearsal Saturday despite weeks of battling.

Injuries to Bailey and Robinson put this race at a firm standstill, and that's not exactly an encouraging sign as both entered this season with injury concerns. As a result, the Saints have been essentially stuck in the mud for three weeks with the regular season not too far in the distance.

Saints coach Sean Payton said Thursday he plans on playing both Bailey and Robinson during New Orleans' third preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Bailey returned to team drills for the first time since July 31 earlier this week, while Robinson saw action in team drills Thursday for the first time in a couple of weeks.

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