SmashMouth

The early-summer pageantry of Saints players practicing in shorts and no pads during organized team activities and mandatory minicamp is in the rear-view mirror.

Now, it’s time to temper past enthusiasm on who looked good wearing shells in no-contact drills throughout the install phase of the offseason workout program.

The true assessment period during the march to the regular season begins in less than a week on July 26 when the Saints kick off training camp, where players have a total of 15 padded practices to show the Saints coaching staff what they learned from OTAs.



“Every year since I’ve been here, there’s something about the pads that defined certain players that had it not been for the pads, then you might not have seen their talents,” coach Sean Payton said during last month’s mandatory minicamp. “So, we’re slow to evaluate that way, but quick to evaluate if someone has trouble or can’t learn.”

Absorbing the playbook is a large part of what younger players on both sides of the ball endure during the offseason.

They then have opportunities to apply concepts, assignments and individual techniques on the field as part of the learning process, while the coaching staff reinforces the instructional phase.

The Saints’ coaches also use the annual offseason workout program to ensure all players are at proper weight and strength and stamina levels to deal with the long days of late-summer training camp.

“It’s a process,” Payton said in June. “I like the health of where we’re at right now overall. The key is to put ourselves in the best position at training camp so we can make the right decisions relative to the roster.”

The stretch run to the initial 53-player roster around the league effectively begins in training camp every year, of course, and practices in August often produce spirited sessions.

But instead of facing numerous questions on the roster, the Saints for a second consecutive summer have the luxury of entering the next phase of the evaluation process without many holes to fill.

The Saints come off a 13-3 season, but fell one game short of advancing to the Super Bowl. Over the past two seasons, New Orleans has enjoyed two straight NFC South divisional titles, posting a 24-8 record over that span while equipped with one of the NFL’s top offensive units and an improved defense that ranked second against the run in 2018.

The team’s success in 2018 was punctuated with a club-record eight Pro Bowl selections — either through initial voting or alternates — with quarterback Drew Brees, running back Alvin Kamara, wide receiver Michael Thomas, left tackle Terron Armstead, defensive end Cameron Jordan, left guard Andrus Peat, right guard Larry Warford and center Max Unger, who retired during the offseason.

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