FletcherMackel Hartley and carney both on the practice field at daints am prax. Carney wearing jersey #1.
jeffduncantp Prax update: John Carney wearing jersey No. 1. Saints have made a couple of other transactions. Signed TE Martrez Milner and another player.
jeffduncantp Milner is a Georgia product, former camper with Falcons, Giants. No name on the other new addition. No. 85 so he's either a TE or WR.
jeffduncantp Oh, in case you were wondering, Derrick Brooks is NOT at practice.
FletcherMackel Also...interesting position switch...DT parnell is now a TE. He's gone from wearing #79 to #89. Don't see position switches like that often
MalcolmJenkins Sitting in the cold tube after a hard practice... we over here grindin!!
jeffduncantp Injury updates: Dinkins (ankle), Grant out 1-2 weeks. B. Miller (knee), Duckworth (concussion), Woods (neck) day to day. Woods NOT released
jeffduncantp Hartley said he took the pills while driving from Dallas to New Orleans late at night during the offseason.
jeffduncantp Hartley said he got it from college buddies.
jeffduncantp Hartley, like Grant & Smith, will go on reserve-suspended list prior to season, will not count against 53-man active roster.
jeffduncantp Hartley does not plan to appeal the suspension.
jeffduncantp Prax update: No movement on Derrick Brooks/Derek Smith. My guess is nothing imminent until TEs get healthy. Saints need the roster spots.
jeffduncantp Malcolm Jenkins working at hybrid safety/nickel corner position. Working in sub package in passing situations.
JeremyShockey As a team we are working on all the small parts of the game.. not beating ourselves is the main goal.. Houston ready for take off
jeffduncantp One benefit of economic downturn: Carney didn't have to find new home. Moved into his house in Ole Metairie. Never sold it. Still furnished.
jeffduncantp Just added it up: Bengals had 233 passing yards in first half of exhibition vs. Saints. 124 of 'em came against Jason David
Harp41 Good Practice today.. we grindin'
jeffduncantp Brees absent from p.m. prax to travel to Texas for mother's memorial service.
wwltvsports Carney: 1 of 3; Hartley: 3 of 3 indoors today
wwltvsports Injury Report, afternoon: C Grant, B Miller and T Duckworth all on exercise bikes; Bush sits out regular practice; Brees excused
jeffduncantp Gregg Williams just finished post-prax presser. Praised Vilma, Jenkins, Hargrove, Dunbar. Needing improvement: J.David, tackling, 4-man rush
jeffduncantp Williams on Hargrove: "He's rare. You have a 300-pound man who runs like a linebacker." Compared him as 3-technique DT to La'Roi Glover.
jeffduncantp Williams on late TD right before halftime: "It made me gag. We've got to be smarter than that."
jeffduncantp GW on J.David: "It is what it is. When the lights come on you've got to be able to function & execute. It's a tough league in that respect."
jeffduncantp Carney missed 2 of 3 FGs in p.m. prax. Gonna take awhile to get in sync with holder, snapper
wwltvsports Correction: Defense stops offense on 3-of-4 2-minute drills, 2-of-3 times in red one.
jeffduncantp Saints have no sense of urgency to sign Brooks. See him as replacement for Simoneau, not starter. I repeat D.Brooks will NOT replace Shanle
jeffduncantp That's not to say he won't be signed soon. But they are not looking at it desperately. See him as a role player.
Linkage
Hartley remorseful over four-game suspension - WWLTV
"I didn’t think twice about it, but being naïve is not an excuse," Hartley said. "The NFL does a good job of telling us what we can and can’t (take) and not knowing is not an excuse. Knowing that, it’s literally a tough pill to swallow."
-Garrett Hartley
"There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that what I was taking was going to make me test positive for a drug test," Hartley said. "It’s something I’ve never had to worry about."
-Garrett Hartley
"My sincerest apologies go out," Hartley said. "There would never be anything I’d do to try to hurt the team or my reputation. I definitely apologize to the Saints and my teammates and definitely to the fans because they support us every day in 100 percent heat. "Now, what’s done is done and I’ve got to be able to move on."
-Garrett Hartley
New Orleans Saints injury report: Tracy Porter returns - Times-Pic
Day 17 Notebook - New Orleans Saints official website
Training Camp, Day 18: Carney's triumphant return, Porter has big practice and more - WWL
Saints respond to injuries at tight end; Parnell a two-way player? - New Orleans Pro Football
Saints get back to work on Sunday - NewOrleans.com
"Rules are rules," he said. "There's no way around it."
-Garrett Hartley
"It was fun," Jenkins said of his NFL debut. "All you can do is get those jitters out of your system so you know what it'll be like the next game and you can just go out there and play. Not much really happened but I got a little bit of production in the little time I got. It was good to get my feet wet and to get a little bit of experience."
-Malcolm Jenkins
"I was only in for three series, but production is production," Jenkins said. "Whenever you're around the ball and can make something happen it's a good thing. That was a good feeling for me. Now it's about getting better."
-Malcolm Jenkins
"It was an opportunity for me to go against some better competition and show what I've got," he said. "So I'm just looking at it as an opportunity and trying to take advantage of it.
"If you want to get on the field you have to be able to do multiple things. I'm just trying to learn what they're teaching me and get a feel for the whole defense and see how I can contribute."
-Malcolm Jenkins
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees praises team's effort against Cincinnati - Times-Pic
"It's the kind of effort teams can feed off of," Brees said. "It's those kinds of things that give a team swagger. What makes me optimistic about this team is the type of guys Sean Payton has brought in, guys who know what it takes, who know how to prepare, how to take care of their bodies. It can have a rub-off effect on the younger players."
-Drew Brees
"You're always looking for the right matchups, our guy and their guy," said Brees. "There's a trust factor out there."
-Drew Brees
"We were flying around out there," said safety Darren Sharper, "but we missed too many tackles. That can happen when you get overly aggressive. We've got to tackle better."
-Darren Sharper
"He treats you like adults," he said. "He doesn't talk down to you. He expects you to do your job. I thought we communicated pretty well for an opener."
-Jonathan Vilma
Saints confident they're a contender in '09 - NewOrleans.com
Die-hard Saints fan earns seat at final table of World Series of Poker - Times-Pic
"There's nobody that can give me anything to take that Saints hat off me, "
-Darvin Moon
Video: Cody: Carney coming back brings things full circle - WWLTV
New Orleans Saints rookie Malcolm Jenkins lines up with first team at safety and nickel back - Times-Pic
"I doubt I'll be pegged into one position," said Jenkins, whom the Saints selected with the 14th overall pick in this year's draft after many experts had wondered if he would fit better in the NFL as a cornerback or safety. "Whenever you can be versatile and play at different spots, it helps the defense, because you can put your five best DBs on the field, wherever they may be," Jenkins said. "If you want to get on the field, you've got to be able to do multiple things. And, you know, we've got some depth at corner, so my first impact on this team might be somewhere else.
"Right now, I'm just trying to learn as much as they're teaching me, and just get a feel for the whole defense and see how I can contribute."
-Malcolm Jenkins
"We just wanted to take a look at him with the first group and see what he looked like," secondary coach Dennis Allen said. "I thought he did good. I think we're going to have a great competition for the nickel position. We're going to have great competition for all the positions."
-Dennis Allen, secondary coach
"Well, I think the beauty of him is that he's a good football player, first and foremost. He's got some size, he's got athletic skill, and he understands the game. So that gives you an option to do a lot of different things with him. And we're looking forward to working with him and seeing what he can do good and what we have to work on, and we'll go from there."
-Dennis Allen
"Well, I think the beauty of him is that he's a good football player, first and foremost. He's got some size, he's got athletic skill, and he understands the game. So that gives you an option to do a lot of different things with him. And we're looking forward to working with him and seeing what he can do good and what we have to work on, and we'll go from there."
-Malcolm Jenkins
"That was the low moment, that day," said Jenkins, who said he hasn't had to battle too many aches and pains throughout the week. "I couldn't get much sorer than that day, so it just got better and better. I just had to get adjusted to the heat and having the pads on."
-Malcolm Jenkins
PHOTOS: New Orleans Saints at training camp Sunday - Times-Pic
New Orleans Saints wide receiver Lance Moore no longer seeing "red'' - Times-Pic
"I'm in practice; I'm not sitting out any periods anymore,'' Moore said. "The defense is a little bit antsy to get their hands on me and try to hit me a little bit. The coaches haven't really said anything if I'm going to work live against the Houston Texans this week in practice or if I'm going to play in the game Saturday night. I'm just kind of playing it by ear.''
-Lance Moore
Video
| New Orleans Saints training camp video log, Day 18 (Aug. 16, 2009) |
John Carney Press Conference Transcript
From the New Orleans Saints official website.
Q: Are you shocked to be back here?
A: The last three years I've trained in the offseason looking for opportunities in the regular season, so I'm not shocked. I'm excited and delighted that the opportunity rests here in New Orleans.
Q: How have they told you what the opportunity is?
A: I can't speak for them, but I know the opportunity starts in the regular season. I'm excited about that. We'll take it from there.
Q: Coach Payton has expressed publicly that he regretted releasing you in 2007. Has he told you the same?
A: He has and so has Mickey Loomis and I appreciate that. That's part of the game. You make decisions at the time with information given to you and you hope it's the right decision. I went on and was fortunate to get work with other teams.
Q: When did you first find out that there would be an opportunity to return to New Orleans?
A: Pretty recently as things unfolded. We've been in contact to see if it would work for everybody.
Q: Were you and the Saints in touch for a specific time frame?
A: Recently.
Q: Had you talked to any other teams recently?
A: No, it's still really early in training camp, so I think teams are sorting out their personnel. I had my eye on a few teams, but it's early, so I didn't think anything would show until the regular season started.
Q: Can you talk about your last season?
A: I played with the Giants and I was fortunate enough to be there. Again I was filling in for an injured kicker who was coming back in Lawrence Tynes, so I knew that the window had closed for the time being. I'm training and hoping that somewhere in 32 teams there would be a need.
Q: Are you still as good as ever?
A: Time will tell.
Q: Do you feel the same?
A: I feel great. I can't fool myself and think I'm as good as I once was, but you train and you focus your goal on being at your best at least one day a week. You plan on it being on Sunday. During the course of the week, it's rehab and strengthening and fine-tuning things and getting ready for the next Sunday. When you're young you can go out and do the same thing everyday, but as you get older you kind of have to pace yourself.
Q: Had you been simulating training camp at home in San Diego the last two weeks?
A: Yes, I wasn't going out and doing two a days, but I've picked up my workload, just as I was in training camp. When you do get a call, especially if it's in the regular season, it's go time. You don't have time to be ready. You have to be ready. August is usually a heavy workload month.
Q: What can you bring this team while you're here?
A: I raise the average age of the team. I'm looking forward to working with the young punters and Garrett and the coaches have mentioned that my mentorship could help them a lot. I look forward to that. I enjoy working with other specialists and especially the young ones, because when I was coming up I looked to a lot of veterans, stole as much as I could from them. I think all of us will come out of this a lot better.
Q: Have you seen Garrett kick?
A: Not in person. I've watched a lot of him on film and I watched how he finished the season last year. He's a real talented kicker. I know they think a lot of him and I look forward to working with him.
Q: Do you have an age at which you think you will stop kicking?
A: No. The league usually dictates that. As long as I'm healthy and enjoying the game, I'll keep pushing it. New Orleans' own Morten Andersen set the bar high for everybody. There are a number of us in John Kasay, Jason Elam, Jason Hanson that are trying to reach that bar.
Q: Some people like Drew Brees and Charles Grant visibly embraced you on the field. Can you talk about the comfort level with a lot of these guys?
A: It helps. The roster has changed quite a bit, but there are quite a few guys that I played with. We went through that magical season in 2006 and came out and won that playoff game against the Eagles. We went through a lot together, so there's that bond and I look forward to playing with them again.
Q: Have you been back to New Orleans since you were released?
A: I think I was back once just to work on our house a little bit and I came back for Steve Gleason's wedding, which was quite an event.
Q: When you left the Saints, you crafted a statement for the fans. Do you do that for every team when you leave them?
A: No I don't. Playing for New Orleans was special and we went through a lot that team and organization with Katrina, playing in Texas coming back and having the magical season in 2006. I felt tied to New Orleans for a number of reasons and I didn't want to leave the city without expressing what I thought of the city and how I thought the city supported the team and the players.
Q: Has your devotion to your health and your diet changed in the last few years?
A: It's a challenge. When you're young, it's a challenge to take what God's given you to play in the NFL and refine it. It's a challenge when you're older to take that same talent which may be decreasing and challenge yourself to see how far you can push it. Can I get the maximum out of my body and my talent? I've been very blessed and fortunate to stay healthy.
Q: Have you changed your diet?
A: I'm not crazy with my diet, but I used to be the fast food king. If they had a drive up window then that was the restaurant for me. I've improved my diet somewhat, but this is the land of Popeyes. How can you resist that?
Q: You don't have any hard feelings or disappointed at being released in 2007?
A: I was disappointed and felt that I had done a good job for the saints in 2006 and I had one year left on my contract, so sure I was disappointed, but it is the game and you make decisions at the time based on the information. I understand their reasoning. Was I disappointed? Yes. I understand the game. I went through this once with San Diego and so I think I was mature enough to handle it, pack it up, go work hard, be successful elsewhere and then get a chance to come back.
Sean Payton Press Conference Transcript
From the New Orleans Saints official website.
Opening Statement:
"We have a couple of roster moves to keep you up to speed on: two guys went on reserve/injured - Mark Simoneau and Reggie Jones, who tore his Achilles at practice the other day. We signed tight end Martrez Milner and we signed kicker John Carney. Our roster still sits at 80 - the two went to IR and then we picked up the kicker and the tight end. We moved Jermey Parnell from defensive end to tight end and we'll take a look at him there. Today was his first practice with the offense. In regards to injuries, we limited Billy Miller - he's still nursing his knee and is not 100 percent yet and we just have to give that some time. We limited Chris Reis with an ankle; we don't think it's serious but we had to rest him. Darnell Dinkins was out with his ankle from the game the other night and then Tim Duckworth had a mild concussion. He didn't practice and we'll hold him out. Charles Grant has the hamstring and then Chip Vaughn with his knee and D'Juan Woods re-aggravated that stinger that he had.
"This morning's practice was more third down work. It was our second installation on third down. We'll have a practice this afternoon that will be a little lighter inside and get ready for a ‘B' schedule tomorrow before we travel Tuesday."
Can you address the kicking situation?
"We signed John Carney with the idea that there's a probable suspension that's going to happen with Garrett Hartley. Without getting into detail, I know the suspension would revolve around a drug called Adderall. It wasn't steroid related, but nonetheless it's a banned substance that he used to stay awake while driving one night. Once we were made aware of that, then we had to quickly have a plan in place to bring in another kicker. John was the guy that we felt comfortable with. He was the guy last year, to be honest with you, when he was with New York and we were going through the different options at kicker, we were hoping that he would've come off their roster but he never did. We had the opportunity to contact him and get him signed and really that's in the likely event that Garrett ends up missing the first four weeks of the season. It wasn't a result of Garrett's performance. I can understand the speculation as to why but that's really it, there are no underlying factors there. It's the likely suspension to Garrett and we felt like (John) gives us somebody with experience that can come in after the season that he had a year ago and we're obviously familiar with him."
Has there been regret with the release of Carney two years ago?
"We're re-hashing that. It's on record that there has been."
Will Hartley be appealing his suspension?
"I don't think he's going to plan on appealing it."
Will that be the first four games?
"Yes."
Is there anything new on Derek Smith or Derrick Brooks?
"Nothing new to report. There's nothing at all."
Are you putting them on hold?
"It's ongoing, and I'll leave it at that."
Is there any expectation that if Carney performs well in the first four games that he might stick around?
"Look what happened last year in New York. They had an injury, he came in and performed and they weren't going to change what was going good. I think that's the nature of our game and that would be the case for the guys that play at defensive end; that would be the case for the guys that play while someone is injured. John knows that and I'm sure Garrett knows that. We're evaluating every week. That's the nature of our game going all the way back to Wally Pipp - wasn't that his name?"
This will be the sixth suspension on this team in three years for banned substances. Is that an abnormal number?
"I think it's high and we obviously need to look closely at it. We're constantly trying to educate and make sure the players are aware of what's on the banned substance list. The NFL does a great job of handing out posts and educating our players and we have to continue to look at doing a better job ourselves."
How has Hartley performed?
"He has been performing well. It was good to see him the other night hit the second field goal. On the first one, our timing was a little off. He has performed well and I'm happy with the player aside from the fact that now we're sitting here with a suspension - that's disappointing and we should know better."
When were you made aware of Hartley's situation?
"It came to our attention in the past couple of weeks. The question was if he was going to appeal it. Without getting into specifics - it's certainly a league matter - but Mickey and I felt that it was in our best interest to have a plan in place and that plan is John Carney."
What are some things that you could do different on that education front?
"It starts from the league office that they're constantly trying to make players aware of the responsibilities that they have. This sounds fairly simple, but when it comes to anything that they're taking - whether it's a supplement or medication - we ought to check with team officials and the league office to make sure that what they're putting in is something that's clean to put in. That sounds fairly simple and it ought to be. We just have to keep reminding these guys about that and not get into situations where we're losing players to start the season."
Is Thomas Morstead an option on kickoffs?
"He's a potential option there. We'll see. We really haven't gotten into deciding who will kickoff. John kicked off fine in New York. We're really talking about four weeks from now. We're getting ahead of ourselves but at kicker we're ready to put him in."
Is there a timetable on Charles Grant's injury?
"From what I'm hearing, it's probably a good week and then we'll have a chance to get him back after we return from Houston."
How much of a challenge is it for a guy like Parnell to switch positions at this point?
"I think that's a big challenge, considering he was a basketball player in college. He came here on defense and now he's going to offense. Like I told him last night, if there wasn't an interest on our part then we wouldn't really be concerned about moving him to a position where we thought he could play. I think he's athletic; he's big and willing and we're excited to work with him."
Was this the first practice where Lance Moore didn't have a red jersey to wear?
"Yes. He's doing well."
Did you use Malcolm Jenkins in some different ways today?
"We had some more nickel installs that went in so he played some inside in the nickel."
How did he do?
"Pretty good so far. Friday night was good in limited reps but with the short week for him we were able to get him in and get him in a position where he wasn't fatiguing."
Will the practices in Houston accelerate his development?
"I think the practices in Houston will pick up for everyone because it's a different opponent."
Do you have any new observations about the team after watching the game film?
"I was encouraged with the turnovers. I think we have to do a better job on third down on both sides of the ball. Today was nickel emphasis and we talked about how defensively they were at 50 percent conversions and we were far less than that and that really explained a lot of the time of possession and the number of snaps. That's one aspect that we have to improve on. I thought we played with good effort but we have some things that we have to do a little bit smarter. Obviously we have to be smart with the football and not turn it over."
Were you impressed with Anthony Hargrove's play on Friday night?
"He's in good shape; he has stamina; he can run and you see that on a number of plays. He plays with effort. It's not always perfect, but he's playing hard and that's encouraging."
What are your thoughts on the performance of Scott Shanle?
"He was one of our better players defensively a year ago; he graded out near the top. Not a lot of people know of him but Scott is playing as well as any of our guys at linebacker right now. We're pleased with his progress; he's in great shape; he has a lot of confidence. He has been real consistent over the last year and a half. We like what we have in him."
Does he do a lot of things that go unnoticed?
"He's a sure tackler and plays within the scheme of the defense very well. He picks things up. He's definitely one of the guys we're counting on on defense."
Do you find it odd that after taking strides to create depth at tight end that you're in the position you're in now?
"It seems that in camp that one position gets hit a little bit. We just have to get Billy (Miller) healthy. In (Darnell) Dinkins' case, we're looking at a week to two weeks with the ankle so we'll see. In the meantime, we have two more guys to look at and train."