The Saints will mercifully conclude their longer than usual 5 game preseason tonight in Nashville by playing against the Titans. Once that’s done, full focus will turn to the Washington Redskins game scheduled for Sunday, September 9th at noon which will count as the regular season opener. The Saints will hold out a number of key players out for this one, both as a precaution to avoid injury and as a chance to give the backups one last chance to earn a roster spot. Here are five things I’ll be looking for:
1. Nick Toon’s first game as a Saint
Rookie 4th round draft pick Nick Toon has spent the entirety of preseason on the sidelines, and he is finally healthy enough to go and will play what I can only assume will be a lion’s share of snaps in this game. I’m sure he’ll feel a lot of pressure to come up with something special to convince the Saints to keep him because as of right now they’ve got little to nothing to go on with him and the battle for a roster spot at receiver has been fierce. I’m for one excited to see what he can do and how he looks in a game situation. He figures to be rusty but my hope is he can still manage to make a statement in this game. If the Saints don’t like what they see, the options would be to place him on injured reserve and shelve him for the season (even though he’s healthy enough to play, this move would ensure they don’t lose him this season) or they could release him. I can’t imagine Toon would clear waivers and make the practice squad, someone would probably snatch him up, so cutting him would probably mean the end of his time in New Orleans. Hopefully it won’t come to that. The flipside is he could look so awesome in this game that the Saints are set on keeping him.
2. The Battle for the Last Roster Spots Available
The way I see it, 43 roster spots right now are guaranteed unless a bad injury happens. I’ve listed the 43 guys I think are safe below. That means 10 roster spots are still undecided for. The players on the bubble tonight as far as I’m concerned are: Sean Canfield (if the Saints keep a 3rd QB, which I doubt), Travaris Cadet, Chris Ivory, Adrian Arrington, Nick Toon, Andy Tanner, Joe Morgan, Greg Camarillo, Daniel Graham, Michael Higgins, Korey Hall, Marcel Jones, Eric Olsen, Tyrunn Walker, Elbert Mack, Jonathon Amaya, Jerico Nelson, Jose Gumbs, Garrett Hartley and John Kasay. That’s 20 guys that in my estimation are vying for 10 spots. Kasay vs. Hartley and Cadet vs. Ivory are head to head battles I find the most griping and intriguing, and if you take those four out (for 2 roster spots) and you’re left with 16 guys battling for 8 spots. There’s lots of good players I’ve listed and 10 of them won’t be on the team (barring injuries to the top 43 guys I have in mind that could change things). If I had to guess right now, the 10 guys that WILL NOT make the team of this list will be Canfield, Cadet, Arrington, Tanner, Camarillo, Nelson, Gumbs, Higgins, Jones and Kasay. I picked Tyrunn Walker to make the team after the first preseason game so I’m sticking with it. Keep in mind Ramon Humber, Lawrence Wilson, Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith will all start week 1 of the regular season suspended, so I am not factoring them into the 53 man roster at this time.
Here’s the 43 players I feel have locked roster spots:
Drew Brees, Chase Daniel, Mark Ingram, Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas, Jed Collins, Courtney Roby, Devery Henderson, Marques Colston, Lance Moore, Dave Thomas, Jimmy Graham, Brian de la Puente, Matt Tennant, Zach Strief, Charles Brown, Jermon Bushrod, Jahri Evans, Ben Grubbs, Martez Wilson, Junior Galette, Cam Jordan, Turk McBride, Brodrick Bunkley, Sedrick Ellis, Tom Johnson, Akiem Hicks, Scott Shanle, Barrett Ruud, Curtis Lofton, David Hawthorne, Will Herring, Jonathan Casillas, Jabari Greer, Marquis Johnson, Johnny Patrick, Corey White, Patrick Robinson, Isa Abdul-Quddus, Malcolm Jenkins, Roman Harper, Thomas Morstead, Justin Drescher.
3. Does Anyone Destined to be Cut Give the Saints Pause?
I’m curious to see if a “nobody” will step up and give the Saints something to think about. This is the desperation time and you get the feeling the players will try to do anything to get noticed. With so many backs against the wall, that could produce both incredible plays and massive mistakes. Remember some guys may not make the 53 man roster but they are still playing for a spot on the practice squad or for a chance to play somewhere else if they get noticed. Guys like Tyrunn Walker, Braylon Broughton, DeOn’tae Pannell, Jerico Nelson, Kadarron Anderson, Joe Banyard… those are guys no one ever gave much of a shot to make this team. That’s the beauty of football though, these guys are still hanging around and in one play (or one injury) everything can change.
4. Do the Saints Avoid Injuries to Key Players?
The less the 43 guys I’ve listed above play, the better. Obviously the Saints only have 75 guys left on the roster so they will have to play some. There’s not much left to be decided at this point so escaping this virtually meaningless game without injury is way more important to the team’s long term success than any one player making the roster as a backup.
5. Last Warm Up for Aaron Kromer
Aaron Kromer will be the Saints’ head coach for the first six weeks of the regular season and he got his first taste of it, so to speak, last week. This week Joe Vitt has mentioned that Kromer’s role and duties increased. So Kromer is getting thrown into the fire week 1 against the Redskins with not much preparation, but this is his crash course. I’ll be looking for how he handles this role and how he commands the sideline tonight. The ship is his to run while Joe Vitt is suspended and I don’t want to understate the responsibility – this is huge for Kromer. This will also be the final game the Saints have Joe Vitt and Mickey Loomis around for until midseason (Vitt is out 6 weeks, Loomis 8 weeks), so the Saints will bid farewell to them.
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