Saints Players Overcome Lockout, Look Poised for Big Season
Sloppy plays, injuries, a lack of cohesion, all of these things describe what many fans and experts expect the beginning of the upcoming NFL season to be like. With the NFL lockout having stretched into mid-July, teams have lost all OTA’s and mini camps that are a fixture in the routine of teams and players during the offseason. Rookies have yet to workout with their new teammates and begin learning the systems they will play in. Veterans have not been able to reconvene and begin the process of “reloading” for another season with their teams and coaches. However, the Saints have taken matters into their own hands and are preparing to come roaring out the gate this season.
Starting on May 3 Saints Quarterback Drew Brees, along with his personal trainer, began a series of organized team workouts at local Tulane University. The first week of these workouts were attended by a reported thirty-seven players including unsigned free agents, according to the Times-Picayune newspaper. For the next six weeks Brees and fellow veteran and team captain Johnathan Vilma recreated the types of workouts and drills that the team would have normally participated in during OTA’s and mini-camp. Basic fitness and weight room work was combined with class room time as veterans took on the roles of coaches in teaching the team’s draft picks about the schemes and methodologies the Saints use. The team would eventually take to the field running drills and practicing plays and scenarios, just as they would normally in mini-camp. All of the team’s draft picks and most of their unsigned free agents participated in the six week program, a feat no other NFL team has been able to replicate.
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With as close to a normal offseason schedule as any team has been able to have, the Saints are looking ready to hit the ground running come July 27, when they will hopefully start their regular training camp schedule. This means that the Saints players, especially the rookies, will be ahead of most the other teams in the league. These teams will have to spend time getting their players ready for training camp, during the first few weeks of training camp. This will help with a very tough beginning to the season.
The Saints will face the defending champion Packers in the season opener at Lambeu Field, followed by the Bears at home in the Superdome. These first two games figure to be dog fights and even with the Saints extra preparation will be difficult wins. That being said, the Packers and Bears played one another in the NFC title game, so both teams off-season were already shorter. A combination of having less rest and less offseason work should work to the Saints favor in these early games. Going one and one in these games would be acceptable and would not damage the Saints early season resolve. But if the Saints can take both games, while not guaranteeing anything, will go a long way to building the kind of momentum needed to make another championship run.
The NFL season is a tough haul and this year figures to be extra tough for teams due to a lockout shortened offseason. The first few weeks of the season are sure to produce some interesting games where the action will be a little rough around the edges. In the midst of all this the New Orleans Saints look poised to rise above the messy beginning of the season and start strong, with their eyes on another trip to the postseason.
By Ian Smith
ProFootball-fans.com New Orleans Saints Correspondent