37 players from the Saints’ roster (including some that are currently unrestricted free agents not under contract) gathered today at Tulane to practice in a semi-organized fashion with no team officials present. The photo above is courtesy of Jeff Duncan’s twitter page. No surprise, Malcolm Jenkins was once again the very first guy to show up to work. Love that guy.
Here’s a list of some of the players in attendance:
Drew Brees, David Thomas, Heath Evans, Darren Sharper, Malcolm Jenkins, Jon Stichcomb, Danny Clark, Jonathan Vilma, Jermon Bushrod, Zach Strief, Jonathan Goodwin, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Randall Gay, Devery Henderson, Marques Colston, Chase Daniel, Jimmy Graham, Garrett Hartley, Roman Harper, Robert Meachem, Jabari Greer, Adrian Arrington, Chris Reis, Junior Galette, Tyler Lorenzen, Pierson Prioleau, Lynell Hamilton.
That totals 27 so about 10 names are missing.
Notable absentees apparently included:
Reggie Bush, Lance Moore, Will Smith, Carl Nicks, Jahri Evans, Pierre Thomas, Shaun Rogers and Sedrick Ellis.
No surprise that Bush and Moore, both unhappy currently with the organization, weren’t present – and ditto Pierre Thomas who is still recovering from surgery. Nicks is still waiting on a long term contract, so that’s somewhat defensible, too. But what about Smith, Evans and Ellis? They all have huge long term contracts. What is their excuse? We already know Shaun Rogers is lazier than just about any player in the NFL so I had no expectations he’d show.The fact that Smith, Evans and Ellis weren’t present definitely rubs me wrong. It makes me wonder how committed those guys really are when they’re getting paid the kind of money they make.
As for the guys that actually showed, I’m most impressed with Sharper, Thomas, Clark, Bushrod, Strief, Heath Evans and Goodwin who don’t even have contracts. Those guys are all proven veterans that could easily get a job with another team next season if they really wanted to, so their being there shows an impressive commitment to the team and to their career.
These practices should continue for the next few weeks. Nice to see many of our boys out there getting work in despite the uncertainty surrounding football right now.
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