A quick recap of the Saints first padded practice

I unfortunately don’t have the opportunity to attend camp and to view each play in its entirety, so I will not make nearly as many bold statements or predictions as you can expect when I have the opportunity to watch preseason games where I can review the tape. With that said there were so many people covering, commenting on, and sharing videos of the Saints first padded practice on Saturday that it is possible to glean a few useful nuggets. The following observations are a quick summary of what I felt were key moments and observations shared throughout the day as well as my own takes on them. I hope you all enjoy.

• The Saints rookie class continues to impress so far: Ryan Ramczyck, Marshon Lattimore, and Alvin Kamara each made their own highlight plays throughout the day. It’s still very early in the process and there is a lot of camp to go, but the early signs are that the Saints scouting staff nailed it at least in the ability department. What these players will need to do is to prove they can adjust to the professional level quickly, and can acclimate not only to the speed of the game, but also the sheer amount of information they are going to need to process at that speed. Still, early signs are that the raw material is there, and that is a great sign.
• Corey Fuller is making noise and a lot of it: Corey Fuller is quickly separating himself and becoming the talk of camp. Fuller was a one man highlight factory yesterday beating Delvin Breaux for an excellent one handed grab up the right sideline and making several other big plays. These plays are becoming a common occurance for Fuller who could provide another deep play threat to the roster. It’s very early, but Fuller is making the most of his opportunities, but only time will tell is he’s more Willie Snead than Nick Toon.
• Delvin Breaux has struggled: Throughout the first 3 days of camp there have been far more reports of Breaux getting beat that him ‘shutting down’ his competition or breaking up passes. This is something that is noteworthy, but absolutely nothing more at this point. In practice you are doing different coverages, working on specific techniques, and very little actual gameplanning happens. This means its not only more likely for a player to get beat in isolated circumstances in practice, but its much more acceptable. This is absolutely something we should be keeping an eye on, but there is no reason to be worried in any way at this point in time.
• The running backs look real good: So far so good with the backs. Ingram, Peterson, and Kamara have looked explosive, fluid, and sure handed so far. The Saints haven’t gone full ‘thump’ yet, but even just the few clips we’ve been able to see of them are encouraging, especially with how fluid Peterson has looked moving through space.