http://www.yardbarker.com/content/player/2132 Recent articles about Orien Harris en-us The Bengals continued to tinker with the roster yesterday, signing guard Frank Davis (Detroit) and defensive tackle Orien Harris (Saints). Trimmed to fit those two in were DT Michael Myers (released) and C Dan Santucci (IR). Harris is a guy I liked when he came out in '06 and could thrive in Cincinnati. Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:08:48 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/316495 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/316495 Rumor has it that the Saints have already cleared some players through waivers and have loose agreements with them for the Monday creation of the 8 man practice squad. Those players are Tyler Palko, Buck Ortega, Skyler Green, Lynell Hamilton, Orien Harris and Andy Alleman. Alleman was a surprise cut after being a 3rd round draft pick. Another surprised cut, Taylor Mehlhaff, is a hopeful for Saints fans if he clears waivers. Although there is no definitive word that the Saints want him back. Word close to JoLonn Dunbar, UDFA LB out of BC, is that Joey has been very happy with the Saints and wants to play for them. That same source says that the Colts and Redskins have expressed interest in him. Dunbar looked very promising in the pre-season games and was thought to have a chance to make the 53 man roster. If Dunbar was signed to the Saints PS, there would be no room for Mehlhaff. Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:39:04 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/316144 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/316144 The Saints today made a number of roster moves to get down to the NFL manidated 53 players.  The team released former third-round guard Andy Alleman, who was a draft pick last season.  The team also placed CB Greg Fassitt (knee) on injured reserve and waived Tim Duckworth, LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar, WR Skyler Green, RB Lynell Hamilton, DT Orien Harris, LB William Kershaw, K Taylor Mehlhaff, TE Buck Ortega, QB Tyler Palko, DE Josh Savage, FB Olaniyi Sobomehein and WR Joe West. Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:53:55 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/315778 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/315778 After a dismal showing last week against the Houston Texans, the New Orleans Saints defense finally stepped up and played well shutting out the Bengals. The Bengals had 11 offensive series, with 10 ending in punts, and one with a turnover by interception. The Saints also only allowed the Bengals to cross mid field once while stopping Cincinnati on all but four of their third down conversions. (4-of-14-29%) and limited the home team to only 165 yards total offense. As usual, the Saints first team offense minus Jeremy Shockey who was suppose to play his first game as a Saints tonight drove down the field on their first possession, settling for a field goal, after a third down and 10 pass to Colston in the end zone was dropped. The Saints second possession of the night resulted in a one yard touchdown pass by Drew Brees to Ronnie Ghent, to put the Saints up 10-0 with 6:03 left in the first quarter. The third possession was stopped short by two incomplete passes, and poor running. The Saints were forced to punt for the first time, but managed to eat up time off the clock, and allowing the defense to get sufficient rest. Cincinnati however could not get things going in their first few possessions, all ending in punts. Tracy Porter getting the start after a horrible game last week, forced a fumble, and fought off blockers to tack on three tackles for the night. On the opposite side of the field, Mike McKenzie making his first start since a season ending injury late last year, made what looked to be a leaping interception, but was later ruled incomplete. Jonathan Vilma had a better appearance, after his debut last week as the Saints middle linebacker, with 1 solo tackle and 3 assist. Both Fujita and Shanle had good games as well, swarming around the ball almost every play. The defensive line gave good pressure up front stopping runs before they could get started. Kendrick Clancy had three solo tackles with two assist. Clancy saw more playing time with injuries keeping first round pick Sedrick Ellis out of the game. Orien Harris who has also had an outstanding preseason clogged up the line numerous times, allowing the second team linebackers enough time to make the stops. The second half of football seemed to be all Pierre Thomas; he had 5 carries for 46 yds, and 4 receptions for 35 yards, he did lose one fumble, but Coach Payton showed confidence, by giving him the ball and allowing him to redeem himself which he did. Both Reggie Bush and Marques Colston left the game early with injuries, but Coach Payton said after the game neither was serious, and that he was not worried. Drew Brees finished the night 14/22 199yds 1 TD, Tyler Palko also had a good night going 11/16 133yds 1 Int. Palko showed leadership, and made good adjustments keeping drives alive, and even had one rush for 9 yards. Both Robert Meachem and Lance Moore made strong cases for playing time, both finishing with 4 receptions on the night. Meachem had a beautiful grab that went for 54 yards, and Lance Morris made a 35 yard grab under tight coverage. Game statistics highlights for the New Orleans Saints: 15 different players caught passes on 27 attempts. The Saints racked up a total of 458 yards total offense, and ran for 145 yards on the ground, averaging 6.2 yards per play. The offensive player of the game for the Saints goes to Pierre Thomas, with the defensive player of the game going to Kevin Kaesviharn who finished the night with 2 solos and 2 assists with 1.5 sacks. Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:15:38 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/311901 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/311901 Defensive Tackle Hollis Thomas tore his right triceps on Wednesday during pass rushing drills and will miss up to two months. Thomas had an MRI that afternoon and underwent surgery Thursday morning. The Saints may end up putting Thomas on injured reserve but the Times-Picayune speculated that the injury could possibly be career-ending after 13 years in the league. The loss of the 34 year-old leaves the Saints with veterans Kendrick Clancy, Antwan Lake, Brian Young, Orien Harris and rookie Sedrick Ellis at the position. The Saints website quotes fellow tackle Brian Young as saying "These things happen, though, and while it's hard to see a teammate and someone as likable as Hollis get hurt, we know we have the talent to keep going. We have some really good depth at the position and a good mix of older players and younger players and I think we'll be okay." Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:22:53 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/306038 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/306038 Another raw update from camp afternoon practice: Before anyone else gets out there, Buck Ortega was out tossing the ball around with the coaches. Blythe was out early, but not in pads again (concussion), but we heard that he should be allowed to practice tomorrow if everything continues as it is now. Porter was out early in shorts as well with Devery as well. Bullocks and Stecker were the first players out that were in pads. *Team walked through kickoff return blocking and coverage first. No actual play, just starting the play with KR running forward and blocking practiced with coverage moving in. While this was going on, Colston and Shockey were warming up on the bikes. Also while this was going on Coach O could be heard yelling at the D-line in the distance (back corner by goal post). The stereotype is true. ? Worked KO to the middle, left and right. PT and Copper rotated in as KR as they never actually did anything full speed. Hollis Thomas and Deuce were not dressed. Deuce was limping pretty obviously. Patten was not wearing pads when he came out either. *1st and 2nd teams split up into groups facing the opposite goal lines to do a non-hitting walk through at half speed. Those on the 1st team side that we noticed: Offense: Meachem, Colston, Bush, Mark Cambell, Billy Miller, Patten (watching), Karney, Brees, and Moore. Defense: Gay, Harper, Shanle, Simoneau, Fujita, Bullocks, McKenzie, Kaesviharn, Will Smith, Grant, Lake, Kendrick Clancy, Marvin Mitchell. Those on the 2nd team that we noticed: Offense: Brunell, Copper, Skyler Green, Curtis Hamilton, Stecker, Lynell Hamilton, Jermaine Allen (38), Kevin Dudley, Buck Ortega, Adrian Arrington, Jermon Bushrod, Isaiah Ross, Carl Nicks, Rob Hunt, Matt Lehr, Zack Strief. Defense: Aaron Glenn, Brian Young, Marcus Pittman, Chris Reis, David Roach, Usama Young, Jason Craft, Wale Dada, William Kershaw, Vilma, Troy Evans, Marquies Gunn, Orien Harris. This list is not complete, but it's who we noticed while they were practicing. The only real note that was worthy to mention was that Reggie lined up as not just a running back, but also as a receiver in the walk through *O and D split up. Defense ran the drill over the speed bumps on the ground (shuttle?), forward facing. MM ran through it and looked good on his knee.CBs moved away Offense did walk throughs at ¾ speed to practice the screen play with each squad (1st, 2nd, and 3rd all running it back to back) and then did the same thing with the reverse play. The D-line stayed by the "speed bumps" and ran it again, with a turn to hit a dummy QB to simulate pressuring the QB. The CBs split off and were doing INT drills. Glenn, Fassitt and Dada all made their catches. Jason David and Randall Gay both dropped theirs. *The field shifted to the D-line and O-line off again to the opposite sides of the field and the QB/RB together doing hand offs. The best part though was the CB/WR bump at the line of scrimmage drill (like the morning drill). The point was for the WR to get past the CB without being knocked too far off their route. The coaches had orange cones to mark off a limit of how far the CBs should either push the WRs out or keep them from going past them. Here is a summary of what we saw: Colston beat Aaron Glenn. Meachem beat Jason David. Randall Gay knocked Copper off his route. Skyler Green made Wale Dada look silly, getting past with a slick juke. Curtis Hamilton beat Usama Young Arrington beat Jason Craft Colston beat Greg Fassitt Meachem OWNED Jason David with a slick move to leave David in the dust. Copper and Dada didn't seem to have a clear winner. Copper made it past, but Dada was with him the whole way. Randal Gay OWNED Lance Moore at the line. It was pretty bad. Skyler Green beat Usama Young. Curtis Hamilton beat Aaron Glenn. Adrian Arrington beat Jason Craft. Colston beat McKenzie. (McKenzie looked real tentative on that only play he was in for this drill) *The Defense and Offense split up again. QBs and WR were doing pass pattern practice. It was all about running a crisp route and then catching a ball. The RBs were practicing coming out of the backfield for a screen or short pass while chipping the DE. I couldn't see what the defense was doing because a young kid had come and stood right next to me, blocking my view. -Outs first. Hamilton dropped a pass. -Ins next. Copper dropped a pass. -Middle slants. Nothing big. -Hook pattern. Skyler Green had the "WOW" catch of the day (so far) with a 1 handed catch on a pass behind him. It was quite an impressive one handed catch. -Post pattern. Green followed his wow catch up by running his post patter too wide and actually running into the coach that was coaching him on how to run his route while trying to run it. It was sadly a bit funny. ? -QB roll out to a sideline pass. Only note was that Meachem made one catch and was holding the ball in one hand out away from his body (like a loaf of bread) and the coach that Green ran into started yelling at him "Tuck the ball in!" -Break out, break in, then go for an outside pass over the shoulder. All made good catches, nothing spectacular. Next the QB/WR did a "4 routes, 4 passes" routine where all four receivers go out for a pattern and four different people throw 4 different balls to each one. Meachem dropped an easy one, but followed it up with a good leaping grab. Billy Miller also had a good catch on one pass. * Offense vs. defense again First team defense was kaesviharn, vilma (mlb), shanle, fujita, david, mckenzie, harper, smith, grant, lake, and Clancy First play – middle run by Reggie. 15 yard pass to lance moore. Pierre Thomas outlet pass, d-line pressured brees. Middle pass to reggie due to d-line pressure. Stecker up the middle, Fujita blitzed from the outside. PT up the middle. No movement, d-line held. Second team Young, Bullocks, Craft, Simoneau (mlb), Dunbar, Shanle, Pittman (replaced Lake). Other d-line unnoticed. Barclay run up the middle. Fake inside handoff, reverse to Copper to the left side, great run by Copper. Third team Defense didn't really switch up. Coach O yelling Barclay up the middle, big hole, d-line didn't seem to be there. Over the middle pass to AA. Break During the break, noticed Hollis Thomas with a gargantuan ice wrap on his right leg. Redzone First Team Pass to the right, tipped by Charles Grant Over the middle to Billy Miller, Vilma went for the strip/pop-out, but wasn't successful. Pressure and coverage really good, Brees had to roll out to the left, threw it over Reggie's head. Pass to the right to Lance Moore. Nice pass to Billy Miller in the back corner of the end zone. He was WIDE OPEN. Second team. Middle short pass to Copper. The first read on the outside was covered well by Dunbar. Ghent won the LOS battle against Josh Savage. Once he had Savage on the ground, the ball was in his hands and he was moving down the field. Over the middle pass to Moore, well thrown by Brunell. Third team Palko not reading well, rolled out due to pressure. Makes a really nice sidearmed pass to AA who makes an even better catch. Short pass to Lynell Hamilton. Palko still not reading well, had to dump off to the rb. Break First Team Reggie up the middle. Steck up the middle. Nice bullet pass from Brees to Colston, really nice catch by Colston using his size advantage over Jason David. Pass over the middle to Meachem. Bad snap, ball didn't even get out of the centers hands. Colston at the goal line over Jason David (size mismatch again) Jammal Brown and Will Smith fight. Nice pass to Meachem. As he catches it, Harper knocks the ball out of his hands. Second Team Good coverage, dump off to Barclay. Sideline dumpoff to the left for Hamilton. Jason Craft and Copper got tangled up at the goalline.. got up a little slow, but seemed to be fine. Sideline pass to Barclay to the right. As they walked off Barclay and Brunell did a little fist pound/handshake type of deal. Third team Hamilton up the middle. AA catches a bullet, then is popped by Reis, but still holds onto the ball. The crowd goes nuts. Ugly backward pass to Barclay. I think it was on the ground after the lateral. Hard to see in front of the other players in the way. Pass to the middle left of the field to Hamilton. As it's caught, Mitchell and Shanle converge on the ball and knock it into the air, but no one comes up with it. Break Kickoff coverage/blocking practice. Full kickoff practice. PT and Barclay handled kickoff duties. Barclay is very fast. Drill was half speed, so they were always running free. As things wound down, you could hear a coach telling Kershaw 'good hustle'. After breaking, everyone leaves, but Stecker, Fassitt, and Reis catch some short passes from the JUGS machine. All three QB's stayed and worked on short yardage/red zone with Colston, Meachem, and a gimpy Henderson (obviously not at full speed) Last people on the field were Brees and Henderson, Brees was throwing over the shoulder passes to Henderson. Autographs added to the hat were Campbell, Moore, Colston, and Meachem. Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:38:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/297540 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/297540 Success in the NFL often starts up front, "in the trenches" as the old saying goes. The defensive end position for the Saints is in pretty good shape with two highly paid stars. But DT is going to be a battle. 2007 Summary: Last year didn't start off well. Hollis Thomas came into camp badly out of shape and Brian Young broke his foot before the season started. Thomas was obviously not ready for a full game at the start of the season and the team had to play Kendrick Clancy and Antwan Lake often. Then after Young came back, he hurt is knee and eventually succumbed later in the year to an illness that was so bad, some were worried he might not play football again. Needless to say, defensive tackle was not a strong point and the entire defense showed the affects of it. The 2007 Saints could be a poster child for that old saying. 2008 Offseason: The Saints did not pick up any major DTs in free agency, but did draft two promising rookies. Sedrick Ellis figures to be a monster for the Saints as the 7th overall pick in the draft and DeMario Pressley has loads of talent, but fell to the 5th round because of a disappointing college career. Orien Harris was signed as a free agent journeyman for training camp. Most importantly in the offseason, some changes have been made outside of personnel additions. First the "read and react" defense of last year seems to be gone. The Saints defensive coordinator, Gary Gibbs, was so determined not to give up as much in the run game, that he went from a gambling, aggressive defense to a more reactionary defense. The objective was to keep the running backs in front of the defense so long runs couldn't gash them. While it did help the run, it seems to have been an overall failure and public comments from the players seem to indicate that will change in 2008. Secondly, the defensive line guru, Ed Ogeron was hired after being fired from the head coaching job at Ole Miss. This could be a huge change for the Saints, as Ogeron is a high motor, high energy coach that has a reputation for getting the most out of the players he is given. This change should result in a very aggressive defensive line. Competition summary: Brian Young (66) Hollis Thomas (99) Antwan Lake (96) Kendrick Clancy (71) DeMario Pressley (90) Sedrick Ellis (98) Orien Harris (92) The Saints will have seven players for most probably four spots at defensive tackle when training camp starts. It would be surprising if Young, Thomas and Ellis aren't on the roster, so consider them locks to be there. And it is most likely that Orien Harris will end being just a camp body, unless the light goes off suddenly. That leaves Clancy, Lake and Pressley fighting for the available roster spot. First let's walk through the three main players that it looks like will be in the starting rotation. Hollis Thomas was an UDFA gem for the Philadelphia Eagles back in 1996. He was a solid contributor for nine years, holding the line steady there. The Saints traded for him before the 2006 season and he has been a staple on defense ever since. He is considered to be a space eater, who keeps multiple blockers occupied so others can get free. Despite that reputation, Thomas had at least 3 sacks in the last two seasons for the Saints. That's quite impressive for a defensive tackle, especially being so out of shape in the beginning of last season, that he couldn't stay out on the field the whole game. Thomas showed up to the OTAs this offseason in the best shape he has been in reportedly since early in his career. That's great news for the Saints, but there is still one problem. Thomas is 34 and one would have to expect a decline in abilities to start to creep in. Brian Young isn't that much younger, just turning 31 on the 8th of July. After a rough season in 2007, battling injuries and a very serious illness, one has to wonder if he will be able to recuperate to full strength and stay healthy this year. That said, he probably will be one of the starting defensive tackles or at least be in the common rotation. Young is more of a backfield disrupter, than a space eater. That makes him a great compliment to Hollis Thomas. Sedrick Ellis is getting a lot of buzz around Saints camp. After impressing even the starting offensive line of the Saints in the OTAs, many expect that he will be starting next to either Thomas or Young in September. Maybe rotating opposite them both at different times. Ellis has the athletic ability to knife through an offensive line and disrupt the backfield on either a run or a pass. In college, Ellis demanded a double team on almost every play or the offense paid the price. Expect him to not only make the roster, but probably start. So that leaves us with the other four players vying for the final position. Unless something has really changed, expect Orien Harris to be cut in one of the early-to-mid rounds of cuts. And then there were three. Kendrick Clancy has the most experience and playing time. The Saints picked up Clancy after he was cut by Arizona last year. Clancy has been a fairly good rotation DT in his career and Lake has been a rotation guy specifically for the Saints for the last two seasons, but both are 29 now and Clancy will be 30 as the season is starting. That may give Pressley an advantage, if he can perform as well as them both and show promise to improve even more. The age of Young and Thomas probably makes a younger player more desirable to the Saints coaching staff. So the final spot is most likely riding on the performance of DeMario Pressley. If he performs well and breaks out of his reputation for underperforming to his abilities, look for him to take the final roster spot. If he doesn't, Clancy and Lake will probably duke it out for that spot. Overall, though, the defensive tackle position should show a marked improvement from 2007. As long as both Thomas and Young are generally healthy and Ellis is the stud everyone thinks he is. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:36:18 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/292530 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/292530