Saints Training Camp Update - Day 7 (Afternoon)

The morning practice was canceled and this afternoons practice was scheduled to begin at 4:20pm. A scheduling change moved the time up to 3pm, but the weather caused practice to start a little later. This post will be continuously updated throughout the night with more articles, videos etc. so be sure to keep checking back, even after practice!

As usual, Fox 40 has has their offensive and defensive observations.

Offense

4:10 p.m. Even though it's their only practice of the day, the team is out in just shorts and shoulder pads. Deuce McAllister and Jeremy Shockey are both sitting this pracitce out. That might be a precautionary measure in case the field is still a little wet and slick.

4:41 p.m. Sorry for the delay, I had to move over to the shady side of the stands. We did just get our Marques Colston "wow" moment of the day. Colston snagged the nose of the football with just his right hand to catch a TD from Mark Brunell.

4:47 p.m. Receivers are going one-on-one with the DB's. Colston looks good, Lance Moore is making his catches and Adrian Arrington had a chance to go up and get a pass over Usama Young, but Young made a great play to knock it out at the last minute.

4:52 p.m Sean Payton just made a stop off at the owners tent, which is located right on the sideline. Payton spent a few minutes talking with Mr. Benson while the team is doing punting drills.

5:16 p.m. A lot of eyes today are on first round pick Sedrick Ellis, who is out here for the first time. Stopping Ellis on the pass rush is 2nd team lineman Andy Alleman, who's doing a pretty good job.

5:31 p.m. Going for a catch in the endzone, Adrian Arrington just came up limping, favoring his right leg. Also Robert Meachem just dropped a pass.

5:33 p.m. Arrington walked it off and is back in there.

5:36 p.m. I have to say that the most consistent group on offense this whole week of camp has been the tight ends. We pretty much know that Jeremy Shockey is going to make big plays. However, both Mark Campbell and Billy Miller have made a lot of catches and even Ronnie Ghent has looked solid.

5:39 p.m. We're now in hurry-up offense mode. Brees looks sharp leading his team down the field without a huddle. Bush has caught a couple of screen passes, Miller snagged one over the middle and Moore made a catch near the sideline and got out of bounds. But they couldn't finish the drive with a TD, time ran out.

Defense

4:10 PM Sedrick Ellis is here, finally! The rookie defense tackle is making his traning camp debut this afternoon. He just took the field for the first time during walk-thrus with the third-team defense (which is not a surprise considering he's missed 12 practices during his holdout)

4:48 Some of the players seem a little sluggish this afternoon. CB Usama Young seems to be visibly disappointed after the one-on-ones. He's had a couple of really great sessions where he stood out to the coaching staff as someone to keep an eye on.

Notes on today's practice from the New Orleans Saints official website.

Notes on today's practice from the New Orleans Saints official website.

Also, here is a video of Mike Triplett and John DeShazier  from the Times-Pic discussing the events of Day 6. DeShazier looks pissed or constipated. You be the judge.

And here is the Times-Pic video report from today.

Here is another one of those player profile pieces. This one is from the Clarion Ledger and it's about Mark Simoneau competing for a spot against Jonathan Vilma.

"We’ve both got opportunities now to show what we can do," said Simoneau, a nine-year veteran out of Kansas State, "And I think we’re both just working hard at it and just trying to get better every day."

"I think since I’ve been in the league," he said, "I don’t know if there’s been one year where I haven’t had competition of some sort. It’s just part of the deal.

"Obviously Jonathan’s a great player and he’s going to bring a lot to this team and I’m just looking forward to a great season."

"We definitely need to step our game up," Simoneau said. "We definitely did not get the job done for sure."

"To get to the goal we want to get to, we definitely want to play better defense. We have to compliment our offense."

Jonathan Vilma had a quote as well.

"I’m used to competition," said the former Pro Bowler. "I’ve been in that position before dating back to the college days. It’s healthy, it’s good that Mark has been here, he’s a proven veteran, he knows how to play and he knows how to make plays."

The New Orleans Saints official website has some new video's up in their multimedia section. Check them out.

WWLTV.com put up their notes from practice last night.