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The first day of media access for the New Orleans Saints’ OTAs is in the books, and a plethora of topics were covered by Coach Sean Payton and the players that were interviewed. Check out NewOrleansSaints.com for several player interviews, as well as Payton’s interview in its entirety. But in this space, here are the high points from several of those sessions:

Payton, on the late Cortez Kennedy, Hall of Fame defensive tackle and friend of the franchise, who died on Tuesday at age 48: “If you didn’t know better and you saw him, you might think he worked here. My first time here interviewing with (General Manager) Mickey (Loomis), we had dinner and Cortez would always make sure that if it was a nice place, he was there to join you. He was just here for the draft weekend. All of us – devastated would be the way to describe it. It just was so sudden. It’s tough. It’s tough. I think Mickey said it best – as great a player as he was, and if you had to pull a starting lineup out of the Hall of Fame on defense, he’s in the starting lineup – he was that good of a guy off the field.” Saints players had Kennedy’s number, 96, affixed to the right sides of their helmet on Thursday.



GETTING A LOOK-SEE: Minus Max Unger, who is sidelined after foot surgery, the Saints are getting a look at several players at center. Thursday, Josh LeRibeus, who’s listed as a guard, was working at center with the first-team offensive line. LeRibeus is a five-year veteran who previously has been with the Redskins (2012-15) and Eagles (2017, during this offseason). He has started 12 of the 28 games he has played. “We’re taking a look at a few of these guys on special teams,” Payton said. “He’s someone that we think has some versatility. We’ll see as we get going. The trick when we have 90 guys is, Can we bring that many kickers and long snappers to camp? So you’re trying to always balance those numbers and this time of the year, where we get a chance to see the long snappers, we get a chance to see those other guys. But he’s battling. He’s doing a good job.”

read more and watch a couple of videos at neworleanssaints.com

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