Saints training camp takeaways, Day 13: Rattler and Haener shine ahead of preseason opener

The ink was hardly dry on my note that said "play of the day" in my notebook next to Spencer Rattler's impressive 2-minute drill touchdown to Kevin Austin when I had to revise things a bit.

That's because Jake Haener got the ball in a 2-minute drill of his own, going 70 yards in four plays, finding Samson Nacua in the end zone from 28 yards out. The recently signed WR went up in tight coverage from Shemar Jean-Charles and hauled the ball in with one hand for the impressive score.

The two moments underscored something that should be evident for all Saints fans tracking the action out in Irvine: The backup quarterback competition is far from decided and should be a lot of fun to watch throughout the three-game preseason slate.

Both players have looked poised under pressure as they've traded off second and third team reps. In Rattler's two-minute drill, which was actually a 48-second, 1-timeout situation with the offense needed a touchdown, he overcame a drop from A.T. Perry, then a holding penalty on Landon Young to get the job done. He went back to Perry for a big game before finding Austin, then hooked up with Austin again for a 2-point conversion.

Rattler also found Chris Olave for a TD in goal line work. For Haener it was a pair of touchdowns on his three reps in that set, finding Michael Jacobson, then Nacua again. Both balls were rifled in with confidence.

Both guys seem to be grasping the offense and moving the ball well. The question will be who holds up the best when the other team is coming to actually hit you. That's something we won't find out until the preseason games. The first chance will be on Saturday in Arizona.

TAKING ATTENDANCE

The bad news: 16 players were out of the action during the final practice prior to the preseason opener.

The good news: A host of those players were on hand Thursday and seem to be in good spirits. It seems like the Saints are being overly cautious with several of these players, and that's likely the right approach at this stage of camp. A majority of the issues are of the soft tissue variety, and there's no real benefit to pushing through it if there's a risk of making the injury worse. We'll have to wait and see if any of these injuries linger into the season.

Here are the players that did not participate in Thursday's practice:
- DB Ugo Amadi (groin)
- WR Equanimeous St. Brown (hamstring)
- WR Stanley Morgan (hip)
- WR Bub Means (shin)
- LB Pete Werner (shoulder)
- WR Rashid Shaheed (hamstring)
- CB Marshon Lattimore (hip)
- RB Kendre Miller (hamstring)
- CB Paulson Adebo (groin)
- S Tyrann Mathieu (rest)
- LB Isaiah Stalbird
- LB Demario Davis (hamstring)
- LG Nick Saldiveri (calf)
- OL Shane Lemieux (ankle)
- DL Trajan Jeffcoat (elbow)
- WR Mason Tipton (hamstring)

One positive bit of injury news is the return of rookie Jaylan Ford, who had missed several practices with an undisclosed injury. Head coach Dennis Allen was coy with who will see action in Saturday's game, but there's no question that these offseason reps are valuable for young players trying to make the roster.

Players I spotted on the field today watching practice: Lattimore, Davis, Shaheed, Means.

KICKOFF FOCUS

The Saints have been working some form of kickoff drill in almost every practice this camp, but there was an added focus on the full-team drill on Thursday, with the new kickoff rule finally arriving in Saturday's game. It'll be interesting to see how the Saints handle it on both sides of the ball.

In the regular season there's no reason to think Shaheed won't be the primary return option in those situations, but he's not going to be out there in the preseason opener. That means several other players will have an opportunity to make an impression, and we saw several tandems today that we could see in that matchup.

Those groups were:
- CB Kool-Aid McKinstry and RB Jamaal Williams
- RB Jordan Mims and RB James Robinson
- CB Alontae Taylor and QB Taysom Hill

There's a common theme in those groups in that they all consist of one speedier, more traditional return option, while the other player would be considered a plus blocker. Something to keep in mind as you watch on Saturday, the way the Saints have been operating, it's the player on the right who gets the call on who makes the catch. If he wants it, you'll hear him yell "me, me, me, me." If it's the other guy's play, you'll hear him yell "you, you, you, you." If you've ever seen the movie A Night at the Roxbury, it sounds a lot like that.

I doubt we'll see anything too fancy from the Saints this time around. The primary goal should be playing clean, not putting the balls on the ground and seeing what blocking schemes work best in coverage as well as return.

PROTECTING THE OL

One thing has become clear throughout this camp: Obvious passing situations have heavily favored the first-team defense.

We saw that during third down install earlier in camp with the offensive line surrendering repeated pressure. We saw it again today in a 2-minute situation, particularly in a final set of team drills with Trevor Penning failing to stop Chase Young on three consecutive reps that went for sacks.

The easy answer will be to keep yourself out of those situations as much as possible. Obviously that's easier said than done. There will inevitably be moments where the offense has to throw the ball and the OL, particularly Penning, needs to improve there.

I'm still not going to overreact right now. As I noted yesterday, I'd say Trevor Penning strung together several strong practices in a row before today's setback, but there's no denying it's a setback. It also came after Penning got into his only significant camp dustup of the year to this point. It appeared that Willie Gay kept a hold of Penning's facemask after a run rep, with Penning taking exception and throwing a punch or two. He was eventually pulled away, but his helmet came off and he was replaced in the next rep by Landon Young.

Penning struggled mightily from that point on, and I don't know if he ever managed to mentally lock back in. When you're going against a player of Chase Young's caliber, you don't have a chance. And that's my biggest concern for Penning. It's not about being a bust or being able to physically get the job done. He can do it. We've seen it. The issue is that he seems to let losing one rep lose him the next two or three. That's all it takes to torpedo an entire drive. In his final three reps he reverted to being too passive, trying to catch the rush rather than engage on his terms and use his hands to gain leverage. When that happens, speed is his enemy.

It's not the end of the world and we'll see how he responds. That tendency is the reason we've heard so much about his mindset and approach heading into this season. He's not going to win every rep. No one does. But he's got to handle those situations better if he wants to hang onto the right tackle job.

CARR MAINTENANCE

It's been tough to get a good read on Derek Carr's performance in a lot of these third down and goal line scenarios with the OL scuffling like it did today, but today certainly wasn't Carr's sharpest. He had one ball tipped at the line and didn't throw a touchdown in red zone work.

We should all know by this point not to overreact to what we see in the preseason, because the Saints have had dominant drives from their first team units each of the last two years only to see a scuffling group to open the season. As Carr noted in his post-practice comments, today was the first time the first team offense was actually stopped in one of these 2-minute scenarios, so it can't have all been bad.

The most important thing right now is for everything to feel comfortable, be it getting the calls in, new verbiage, etc. None of that stuff can be the excuse early in the year.

It's because of those elements that I think we will see Carr and the first team offense, or at least the first team line, in the preseason opener -- though the head coach won't commit to that right now.

LAGNIAPPE

Both kickers Blake Grupe and Charlie Smyth were technically in action, but neither was dressed out and there were no kicking reps on the day. It'll be interesting to see how the Saints split up the live kicking reps in the preseason. It feels like those will be a lot more valuable for a guy like Smyth who has literally never kicked in an NFL game setting. We'll see how that goes. ... The Saints have had visitors often during this training camp. Today it was Malcolm Jenkins on hand to help out his former squad. ... Through a bit of eavesdropping I learned one of Alontae Taylor's only real concerns about potentially returning kicks, as he relayed to Chris Olave: "I've got to learn how to take a hit again. I haven't been hit since high school." He's been on the giving end of those hits since he shifted to defensive back at Tennessee. ... UDFA Kyle Hergel should get a good bit of run in the Saints preseason opener. It will be his first NFL game experience as a player, but it will also be his first time at an NFL game in general, and as he noted today, "I've got pretty good seats." True. ... If Chris Olave doesn't play, which feels likely, the Saints will have to make do with five WRs in Saturday's game. That will mean plenty of opportunities for players like Nacua , Perry , Austin , Cedrick Wilson and even Marquez Callaway to make an impression on the coaching staff.