Saints Training Camp Update: Could Kendre Miller Injury Change Depth Chart? | After Further Review

New Orleans Saints Camp report Kinder Miller injured Chase young debut some standouts all the way from California at the New Orleans Saints training camp ladies and gentlemen this is after further review Matt musona let's go ahead and take a listen shall we real man all throughout Saints training camp while they're in Irvine our buddy Ross Jackson locked on Saints is good enough to join us here for a Saints Camp report we'll do it daily all the way through August 16th that is unless Ross gets sick of us and says hey stop calling me you jerk Ross how are you man stop calling me you jerk no I'm just kidding I'm great Qui geez man we need get started um hey this is so wild man you told me when we we spoke yesterday I didn't realize this uh you went to school you went to grad school in Irvine like you went to school on that campus wow that's pretty well small world you see Irvine one of my favorite college basketball teams to bed on because they're always late night get me out of a jam sometimes yeah man literally right across the street so the the Bren Event Center is on a street called Mesa Road and right behind the Bren event is where the two football fields are across that road is the Clare Trevor of the Arts where I hold my master of Fine Arts Theater is from that very school from right across the street so it was cool it nice A little homecoming wow there it is right there pictures on Twitter if you or X if you want to go check it out I mean like I guess you have to take the photo of it right if you're gonna be there yeah yeah I didn't tell anybody that I was coming into town so that was kind of my way of letting everybody know hey I got them here here hey uh set the scene for us man uh for a very decidedly different scen for Saints training camp yeah absolutely could not be more different I mean honestly I me if you're thinking about the players if you're thinking about the scheme if you're thinking about the energy if you're thinking about the strategy if you're thinking about everything I've said it once I'll say it again what we are seeing right now both from a systematic from a strategic from a schematic from all of that we have not seen anything like this in 15 years since 2005 everything has been done the exact same way whether it was with Drew Brees or whether it was without Drew Brees we have held to pretty much the same plan strategy standards all of that as Shawn pyton whether it was Pete Carmichael and Dennis Allen or or John pyton himself the Saints have done the same thing for almost two decades so not only do we have a whole new crop of players who are in position battles who are trying to make a name for themselves whether that's tiis a faga whether that's Trevor Penning whether that is Chris alive and rased shahib whether that's Cedric Wilson whether that's Chase young whether that's Cam Jordan they're all over the place whether that's Payton Turner Isaiah fosy I mean koola mckinstry ladies and gentlemen the deal is both on the roster and with the coaching staff there is a lot of new there is a lot of first time there is a lot of how is Clint kubak going to do this there's a lot of what's the new culture going to be because last season slash this off season is a cultural reset there's no other way to look at it you don't fire your entire offensive staff you don't do all that bring in outside voices young outside voices you don't do that from a totally different tree you don't do that without saying you know what okay we're closing the book on pton Breeze let's start a new and it's got to be energizing but that's that's what we're seeing right now in Irvine is completely a complete Fresh Start very different kind of talk about the weather and things like that which I do think is is worth mentioning it does allow this team to maybe work a little bit harder push a little bit more than maybe they can in you know 90 yeah I mean you can't have a training camp here I mean in in New Orleans you know like if you had it in at at their facility in met you know you're talking about 95% humidity thunderstorms every two hours like yeah go somewhere where it's it's clear it's sunny and and get to it humidity 99% humidity all those things uh but I think the other thing that's really kind of interesting about this environment is that it's one that kind of takes away a lot of distraction uh for this team there's none of the home life stuff there's none of all those yeah same you get to focus you know same same deal as always with a training camp where you're not going back to your family you're not going back to your house you're not going back to to any of that you're focusing you're focusing on the camp little side note I was in Salt Lake City last week Utah and uh it was like five degrees or something like that and with no humidity at all and I'll tell you this like I've you always hear like it's a dry heat you always hear you know the humidity makes a difference whatever it was hot obviously it's over 100 degrees but it it is totally different I mean I wasn't sweating at all and there were certain times where I was like it's actually kind of cool you know it's actually kind of it's almost like a springtime Vibe I mean sometimes at some points it was it was absolutely hot and I was in like a you know I wasn't in a a bathing suit I was in clothes so I certainly could not have made that walk in New Orleans so I mean it it it was a good reminder of just how serious that that humidity is not that there's anything negative about that stuff but you know like their focus is on football all the time and you can certainly kind of feel it I would say that the Vibe if you will was very different um it was a focused Vibe and even in a practice where you can only do so much the NFL's rules with the first practice and acclamation periods and things like that you can kind of feel a little bit of the um intensity and that intensity comes from the environment but I think that that environment is also driven by the coaching we saw and felt a lot of that intensity during OTAs and mini camps as well so it's great to see that carry uh through all the way over here on the other side of the country yeah you got to remember these coaches are fresh you know kubak janoko a lot of these guys are it's their F it's their first crack at this so they're going to come into this hot so they're not going to have that time period of just like okay you know we always do this it's another year let's just let's just kind of ramp up they're going to hit the ground hard because they're they got to send a message they have to they have to create the foundation of like what their culture looks like what their training camp looks like Clint kubak is doing what he can do to get the offense not only set up not only you know to where they can execute but they're also he's also getting it to where they trust him and they respect him and and part of that comes with you know hitting the ground running so from the players to the coaches I just feel like the energy is in the right place to start training camp what was the structure practice like today Ross so they started off with stretch then they went into some individual drills we got to see a little bit more in terms of maybe some new drills that were coming up the running backs uh had a new drill to where they had sort of these uh red bars that you can run on they had three of them lined up next to one another um the running back would start with the football start running full speed towards those three uh those three gaps and then two coaches would fill two of the gaps and then the the running back would have to kind of read react and then burst through the other so one of those kind of dir Foster things that's being brought in it's always interesting to see what new things brings in so they went to those position drills to where they were kind of focusing on their own own positions they went into kind of routes on air and things like that where they started to put things together so they built it after walk throughs with uh you know routes on air and then they went seven on seven where you started to incorporate more of the offense uh more of the defense and then they eventually got up to team drills interspersing some special teams uh in the midst of that they only ran team drills twice po this one again pretty light not a lot of trying to push the ball down field or anything like that but that was kind of the structure in terms of how they did it then everybody came together met at the middle of the field uh while maybe some field goal kicks were going on and things like that and then uh and then broke for the day uh Ross Jackson Nola on Twitter X make sure you're subscribed to locked on Saints if you're not subscribed I mean you're talking about a daily Saints podcast and the Saints on Camp I mean it's just make sure you're subscribed to that podcast right now since you were talking about the running back drill let me ask you about chimra um all indications are he seemed to do well on a day by the way let me let me talk a little bit about the drills so I don't put a lot of stock into the drills or the statistics from camp or anything like that what I'm focused on is the energy what I'm focused on is the competition what I'm focused on is who is you know pushing the M themselves ahead of their position Battle Competition I'm not worried about like blank player went through the right gaps in the running back whatever drill you know 100% of the time like I don't care I don't care about that what I care about is who's leading who's falling behind who is looking good who is physically fit who is injured things like that so I wouldn't get too caught up in like the drills and all that I think they're kind of a they're kind of like a vehicle for competition really training camp is just kind of ramp up your CNS ramp up uh everything to get to where you need to get to to get ready for the NFL season when Kendra Miller got hurt so maybe a thought on camra's day and and Miller's injury yeah absolutely so I think that the big thing around Alvin CRA obviously was people were who were all very interested about what his you know participation would look like he said the let me say this about CRA I think everything is fine the fact that he's there the fact that he's doing things it shows that you know he is a leader I mean it's crazy I you know it's crazy when when I see comments that are like Alvin cimo is just being a diva or he's just being a baby about this and it's like guys in no Walk of Life should you do something when you feel like you do not have the best contract you not have the best pay or you don't have the best situation around you you know like trying to better your situation or try and get something figured out that should be figured out that it's not being a diva that's not being a baby that's being a businessman that's being a human being so if you're in a situation and you're like man I'm kind of getting screwed here with my hours I'm kind of my schedule's jacking me up or my pay should be higher or I'm not getting overtime when I should be or whatever or or you know anything like that take take a little advice from your boy it's not being a diva to get what you should get and Alvin has mentioned he does he's not asking for the world he just doesn't want to play on the last year of his contract with no contract extension with nothing in the future and no security at all I mean Alvin chra again is on the last year of his deal if he goes out there gets hurt you or if he goes out there in week 11 week 12 he has absolutely no security at all where he'll be playing next year or any of that as you can imagine it's difficult for a player so he he is probably just asking for whatever not the minimum but he's asking for somewhere in the middle to where he knows he's a saint to where he knows at least the next couple of years to where he can play kind of without that in his head so I think it's big of him that he's there I do do not blame him for trying to get the most out of his his situation you take a look at some other teams like the Dallas Cowboys uh some other teams where some legitimate turmoil is going on where players are not there where players are truly holding out even Trent Williams and in San Francisco and it could be a lot different you know so I'm glad Alvin's Alvin's there and uh you know T tip of the cap to him to this contract negotiation uh with the team but he was out there participated in everything individual drills walkthroughs full team drills did it all uh didn't take any snaps off didn't I mean he had snap he inherently had snaps off but you know he wasn't standing off to the side watching things happened which makes sense right you're trying to push for a commitment with a team for your future and that 100% like that's what we were saying last week when we talked about the contract thing where it's like you know he doesn't have that much leverage as far as his performance last couple of years it doesn't help if he's not there and then the fact that the Saints don't have to do anything like the Saints already have him under contract so this I think is the best move for him just to be there be present be engaged I guess have kind of the good faith that the front office will get this done they should have enough of a relationship to where you know whoever tells chimra like look we'll get this done just you know do you and then we'll we'll kind of mess with the books or whatever and and C should have full faith that they're going to do that so I think it's the best case scenario that he is uh engaged and as a fan that's what you want to see right like we want to see this offense at full strength we don't want to see this offense where you know arguably the most important piece of it is is is holding out and that team wants to see what your commitment looks like so let me show you and I think that's logical he said that it was always his intent to be here day one during training camp uh and participating and then when uh when we were speaking with him I asked specifically when it comes to contract negotiation how things you know is it something that you're looking at for the now or is it something you're looking at with the future and he's very much concerned about his future he wants to finish as a saint he said I want to retire uh here I want to finish as a New Orleans Saint so and I have I would have no problem with him doing that I would have no problem with them allowing Alvin to retire as Saint as long as this production is there for sure so one of my favorite Saints of all time and I hope I hope they get this figured out again make making that statement and again driving the point forward that his goal is to remain a New Orleans state and that's that's all that it is that he's he's sort of looking for it now does the value make sense to help to make that happen that's the question that the team has yeah as much as we say that yeah 100% the finances had to have to be there and I'm sure they will and then I think you got another idea of the value when you have a guy that was drafted in the third round just a couple years ago and kend Dre Miller leaving with an injury and and unfortunately this has just become um all too common uh for kendre to the point to where when I asked Dennis Allen about the injuries today one of the things that he said was to the effect of kendre Miller is a guy that's effectively gotta find a way or figure out a way to stay healthy because it's hard to make a football team when you're hurt uh this is a good reminder I had a lot of people during this cimera conversation tell me KRA Miller can be the the he can be the running back Kendra Miller can be the starting he he looked better at times last year and and let me just tell you this like you know you can never ever just assume a player is going to number one play at the full season but you also can't assume that a player can handle that workload you know we've seen it we kind of saw it with Tony Pard last year where Tony Pard looked like he was ready to be the the featured running back and then you all of a sudden see like damn he he actually probably can't handle the full workload we've seen that before we've seen it with Cordo Patterson with the Falcons where he would look incredible at the beginning of the season and then all of a sudden it's like H you can kind of tell he's wearing down he probably isn't that like you know 200 carry a year kind of guy people way too often fans and analysts or whatever they look at players and they just 1 plus 1 equals two where they think okay well if if we bench Alvin chimra or release Alvin CRA or trade Alvin CRA Kendra Miller will step in no problem he'll have 180 carries and we'll times that by his yards per carry and then boom he has 1400 yards you know like that doesn't happen and and people wear down and Kendra Miller has yet to prove he can do not not just play a season he hasn't even proven he can play a quarter of a season again he had 17 yards rushing last year and the reason I say all this is to tell you to be careful whenever you say make blank rookie the full-time starter or make blank assistant coach The head coach you know Clint kubak has yet to call a play for the New Orleans Saints let's pum let's pump the breaks on him being the head coach next year Kendra Miller has yet to have 200 yards rushing let's pump the brakes on him being the featured back right um Bob Means has yet to play a game Let's pump the brakes on could he be the number three right so that and same with a lot of our other players you know Christian Boyd and whoever else where you got to let these players develop before they're ready to just be the starting whatever position for an NFL team and before they're ready to get that many reps and I kind of said that with rashed Shahed going into this year where people were saying like could he be our number one it's like ladies and gentlemen let him try and be the number two first let let's see what let's see what what a little more volume looks like let's see what a little bit more uh touches look like let's see what a little bit more wrinkles in that offense what does that look like how does he transition from just a burner deep threat to more of a true number two like let's try and get there first so same with Rattler same with Hanner where I had tons of people telling me that Spencer Rattler or Jake Hanner should be the quarterback this year you cannot just you can't just throw players in like that and completely skipping their development or completely disregarding their variables like Kendra Miller's unfortunate variable there he can't say help and that was a very upfront remark by a head coach coming out and saying effectively publicly challenging uh this player to find a way to stay out on the field so uh we don't know the severity of the H of the injury yet we do know it is a hamstring injury uh but so we'll be digging for more information there but definitely something to watch because um man if you want to prove that you're you're of value to this team this was a real opportunity for you to do that now Alvin C shows up he's fully participating and then you leave the field hurt again uh that that can be a little bit tough on your out not he is I heard the Dennis Allen's comment Ross when he said it's hard to make the team when you're injured is there really a chance that kendre Miller doesn't make this roster I I think look what we've seen over in I think he's kind of just saying like if you're not healthy you're not going to be on the roster which which is 100% correct like if you just spend your whole time injured you're going to find yourself off of the roster I don't care what position you're in over again is that Dennis H loves to drive competition and so when when you love to drive competition you have to have guys that you feel like can actually push and one guy that I would keep an eye on on especially after that comment is Jordan Mims uh Jordan Mims is a young talented running back from Fresno State he's got a little bit of that Fresno State connect tiue to a lot of this coaching staff Derek Carr Jake hner all this other stuff uh but he he's a guy that they really likeed remember they didn't bring him in as an undrafted free agent he's somebody that signed as an undrafted free agent with the Buffalo Bills and then hit the market and the S went out and got him and then he's stuck on the roster the entire time and he loves this system this Clint kubak system everything down from the Run game that's the good thing too of the situation the Saints when you have like core veterans and then you have young backups or unproven backups or whatever Ever every position is a position battle I mean I I'm going to say this all training camp but Rasheed Shahed to Cedric Wilson to bub means to at Perry to ecmia St Brown to the offensive line to the defensive line with pton Turner Isaiah fosy uh Carl Granderson Chase young Cam Jordan to the running backs to the tight ends you know like besides your top guy like once you go a layer down it is a complete up for grabs of what that rotation looks like I love that I love that I love the idea that we're just driving competition May the best man win you know the the the talent usually Rises to the top and if that means if that means uh Jordan mems is our backup running back and Kender Miller on the practice squad so be it if that means that Dal hooker is our starting tight end and Foster Maro is in the 15th row selling candy pins so be it you know I don't care and PE like I this is another thing where people get it kind of mixed up where I had a you know it's like what about blank player I like blank player it's like I don't really care about blank player honestly I could care less I I want the best player at that position I don't buy players jerseys I don't like their numbers they who who who is where does not matter to me what matters to me is that the most impactful person at the position is playing that's it you know I I that's just how I see the game and that is why I think this channel is can give the analysis we give is that we don't have any bias I I don't have a favorite player I don't have a favorite you know situation or I'm not rooting for Spencer Rattler over Jake Hanner I'm not rooting for Crystal Al over Jah I'm not rooting for uh you know Chase young over Cam Jordan I don't care if Cam Jordan has 12 sacks awesome if pton Turner is a defensive player of the year and Chase young never steps on the field awesome I'm not losing any sleep about it and that's how I think everyone should look at this you know other you know I know I watch obviously I watch sane amount of NFL coverage and people get really hung up on like their favorite player or their favorite rookie or who they're invested in or who whose jersey they bought or whatever and it's like you know I I just want to see the Saints win games that's it I want to see the Saints win games I want to see the Saints win the NFC South I want to see us host a playoff game that is where I draw the line if tiis fuaga is benched and random 37y old free agent we get is our starting left tackle cool works for me you know do I hope we land on our draft picks I hope these guys develop I hope they become good but if they don't next man up give them the chance to develop give him the chance to play and then next man up best player let the best player play that's it you know so that's what training camp is all about I like that that's where the Saints are I like that that's where the Saints are seemingly where they're ready to just give the best player the chance to play and I think that makes for a better team honestly came to lining up out wide being motioned out wide and being a part of the receiving progression he loves every bit of it and he's been healthy we haven't seen any issues at all with him and in some cases if I mean you're just going to get better the more that you practice and sometimes that ends up being the division right like I practice more therefore I'm better therefore I'm you're not true Ross we're going to have plenty of time to talk about the offensive line once they get into pads I know you don't really see much before they get into pads but I do want to ask you on the flip side about a defensive lineman um Chase young neck surgery was out there what if anything can you tell us about Chase Young's first day in the black and gold yeah he's hard to miss I'll say that much he is big um he is somebody that is uh I mean just in it looks like an imposing Force we really only got the opportunity to see him during walkthroughs and then a little bit of individual drills uh mostly kind of standing on him doing all this whoa this guy this guy looks like he's ready to grab every sweet potato and every oven in America look at these Ms but yeah the fact that chase Young's out there we knew that he was tring in the right direction we already covered this we knew that he was already working out running uh so I yeah we never doubted that he'd be out there but it's a good sign that he is out there moving around uh just running just you know just moving the feeling comfortable enough to do that so great training in the absolute right direction here for Chase young uh to the side did a little bit of kind of special teams it was around kind of the Special Teams area as well uh but that's all that we really got to see of him so I don't have any big Insight on him yet outside of what he looks like physique wise um he looks like a guy that's really ready to to get started so it was great to see him already out there at least doing those walkthroughs and things like that and we'll see what his ramp up looks like in terms of how he gets more involved over time Kool-Aid McKenry back in um mandatory meeting camps over the course of those three days he went from walkthroughs to individual drills from Individual drills to to more individual drills over the span of three days and then today he was out there kind of participating and so I'm wondering if maybe we see a similar trajectory H for Chase young to where even just within the first week do we get to see him Advance a little bit man there's uh we're gonna have a lot of time to cover a lot of ground here over Sint training camp the last one if you had to put a finger on like day one standouts anybody catch your your eye or collectively catch the eye out there yeah absolutely uh linebackers Demario Davis and Willie gay um they were look I've been I think Willie gay is gonna be a stud I I really do I think he's I think he's going to bring a level of athleticism to this defense and I think he's going to be one of those guys who at the end of the year you're going to look back and say like damn he might he might have been the best player on the defense saying for a little bit and I think many people have that if this New Orleans STS defense wants to get even better right this is a very a pretty consistent defense uh I think is fair to say since 2017 consistently top 10 two things they need they need to do to get better rush the passer and they needed to get a little more athletic Willie gay covers the athletic side can we find that pass rush if we can find that pass rush there is no reason that the Saints can't have a top five defense and um even though it used to be more in the top five conversation uh but pretty good defense and one of the things that I've I've been saying is that this team would be so much better if they were Playmakers at the second level and Demario Davis has been consistently one of the best linebackers in the league obviously one of the biggest leaders in this defense the addition of Willie gay just takes the playmaking up an entire level and so that was something that really stood out to me I'm looking forward to seeing if it was a day one thing versus a consistent thing right that's something that they they've got to be able to show but those are the guys that stood out to me in terms of the guys that I feel like had the best days out there than training camp day one make sure you're follow them at Ross Jackson Nola Ross Jackson Nola subscribe to locked on Saints yeah no doubt go follow Ross U he's out there you know training camp big shouts to all the all the New Orleans Saints media who are out there who are doing training camp it's tough man it's tough for them too be out there every single day watching practice you know reporting it uh so big kudos to all those guys so make sure you're following Ross if you want those second to Second uh bits of training camp coverage let me know in the comments below what you think about this ladies and gentlemen thank you for watching and I will see you in the next video