The little kids in the risers were screaming for Alvin Kamara’s attention and the mercury rose to barely bearable conditions — summer has officially arrived for the New Orleans Saints.
The Saints held the first of three minicamp practices Tuesday afternoon at their Metairie facility, running drills in front of a capacity crowd that came out to get a look at all the new things going on with their team.
The bulk of Tuesday’s practice was devoted to special teams and individual periods, but New Orleans did let quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough operate a pair of competitive seven-on-seven periods.
Onto the observations, starting with who took the field.
Attendance
Everyone on the Saints roster was present and accounted for, including those who opted out of attending the voluntary organized team activities last month.
That list includes Mr. Do Everything Taysom Hill, who spent the entire practice watching from the sidelines as he recovers from a torn ACL that he suffered last December. After practice, coach Kellen Moore declined to offer any sort of a timeline for Hill’s return, though he made it sound like training camp would be ambitious.
Joining Hill as spectators were tight end Foster Moreau and defensive back Dalys Beanum.
Quarterback Jake Haener (oblique), cornerback Quincy Riley and tight end Dallin Holker all participated in some form or fashion after missing time in OTAs because of injury.
All eyes on QB
After practice, Moore applauded the fans for packing into the available seating for a noon practice on a Tuesday. A lot of them were probably there to catch their first glimpses of the brewing quarterback battle.
Though Moore has been careful to include Haener as part of this competition, all of the snaps in the competitive periods went to the two most likely options at quarterback: Rookie Shough and second-year player Rattler.
Both quarterbacks were given 16 reps in the seven-on-seven periods, and if fans were hoping to get a ticket to a laser show, they may have come away disappointed: It appeared most of what the Saints were asking their quarterbacks to do was to take the easy completions if they were there. About 90% of the attempted passes came within five or 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
But there were some highlight moments. Rattler had the best completion of the day when he hit running back Xazavian Valladay on a wheel route deep down the right sideline. Valladay was well behind Chase Young in coverage, and Rattler threaded his pass into Valladay’s hands before safety Travion Fluellen could get there to help.
All of Shough’s completions were relatively short, but he did show off some of his best traits on two incomplete passes.
There was an out-breaking route to Brandin Cooks that Shough zipped to the sideline that showed off his arm strength. Cooks hauled in the pass but landed out of bounds. The timing needed to be better, as Shough was a hair late on his release, but the throw itself was impressive and is the stuff that can’t be taught. Shough also expertly placed his one deep shot deep down the left sideline, but undrafted rookie receiver Moochie Dixon was unable to get both feet inbounds when he came down with it.
Neither quarterback turned the ball over in seven-on-seven, though Rattler came close when he did not put enough touch on a second-level throw to Juwan Johnson. Rookie safety Jonas Sanker nearly made a leaping interception.
This is about what we’ve seen out of the quarterbacks so far. Both clearly have talent as throwers, and the thing that will probably separate one from the other is when the staff can see them navigate traffic in the pocket.
Odds and ends
Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier’s son was at practice Tuesday, which of course means a little something different around these parts. Garrett Nussmeier is going into his second season as LSU’s starting quarterback and could potentially be a top 10 pick in next year’s draft. He spent several minutes chatting with Moore on the sideline at one point Tuesday.
Kamara was back, and he looked like the usual version of himself while doing drills. It’s going to be interesting to see the vision Moore and the new offensive braintrust has for him. Will he continue to be the workhorse he has been for the last couple of years, or will the team be a bit more selective with his usage?
Kicker Blake Grupe is coming off a quietly excellent sophomore season in which he made 27 of his 31 kicks, and he looked like he was ready to pick up right where he left off. Grupe was perfect in Tuesday’s session, and he finished it off by drilling a 61-yarder. He will once again have to hold off the talented Irishman Charlie Smyth.
The Saints appear to be trying out anybody and everybody in the return game. There was a long line of players waiting to catch both punts and kickoffs during the special teams periods. Rashid Shaheed was among them, and he has been one of the NFL’s best since breaking in with the Saints in 2022, but his injury history might make the Saints hesitant to use him in that role.
“Anybody and everybody” does not include offensive and defensive linemen as returners, though we did get to see one fun moment at the end of practice when offensive guard Kyle Hergel and defensive lineman Omari Thomas were both asked to field punts while the team watched. Hergel caught his lone attempt, while Thomas dropped both of his chances.