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The New Orleans Saints completed their first week of OTAs yesterday and the media was finally allowed access. That means finally getting an initial peak at the depth chart by seeing who lines up where during practice.
Mike Triplett was kind enough to share with us exactly which players were running with which team on the defense during practice, basically laying out the defensive depth chart, for the day at least.
FIRST STRING
DE - Cam Jordan
DE - Tom Johnson
DT - Brodrick Bunkley
OLB - Will Smith
OLB - Martez Wilson
ILB - Curtis Lofton
ILB - Will Herring
CB - Keenan Lewis
CB - Patrick Robinson
S - Roman Harper
S - Isa Abdul-Quddus
SECOND STRING
DE - Akiem Hicks
DE - Jay Richardson
DT - John Jenkins
OLB - Junior Galette
OLB - Victor Butler
ILB - Chris Chamberlain
ILB - Ray Shipman
CB - Jabari Greer
CB - Corey White
S - Jim Leonhard (*-replaced Harper with first string before Harper arrived later in practice)
S - Rafael Bush
THIRD/FOURTH STRING
DE - Tyrunn Walker
DE - Glenn Foster
DT - Issako Aaitui
OLB - Rufus Johnson, Eric Martin
OLB - Baraka Atkins, Chase Thomas
ILB - Ramon Humber
ILB - Kevin Reddick
CB - A.J. Davis, Korey Lindsey
CB - Rod Sweeting, Ryan Steed
S - Kenny Vaccaro
S - Jerico Nelson
Of course we're reminded by coach Payton not to read too much into any of this. And, of course, we're going to ignore him. So here are my quick observations of Thursday's practice lineup.
- Malcolm Jenkins, Jonathan Vilma, Kenyon Coleman, and David Hawthorne did not practice.
- Jabari Greer was running with the second team. Ouch. That's a surprise but I doubt Patrick Robinson is going to steal his starting spot.
- With Malcolm Jenkins not practicing, Isa Abdul-Quddus got the nod at free safety with the first team. Good for him.
- The highly touted Chase Thomas was all the way at the end of the line with the fourth stringers.
- Tom Johnson as the starting defensive end opposite Cam Jordan and Akiem Hicks on second team? That's a little interesting.
- The defensive tackle rotation order is as I would have expected: Brodrick Bunkley, Jonathan Jenkins, Issako Aaitui.
- Will Herring got the first string honors at inside linebacker next to Curtis Lofton.
- Who is this Ray Shipman character at second team inside linebacker?