Yardbarker: David Roach

Rams Inactives for Sunday’s Game vs 49?ers

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:58:48 -0500

The Rams have declared OT Anthony Davis, RB Antonio Pittman, QB Brock Berlin, DL Claude Wroten, C Cory Withrow, SS David Roach, CB Quincy Butler, OL Roy Schuening inactive for Week 16.

Saints Start Roster Moves; Arrington on IR; Cut Seven

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:10:08 -0500

Today the Saints placed seventh-round draft choice Adrian Arrington on injured reserve Friday and released seven other players. New Orleans also terminated the contract of recently acquired veteran safety Lance Schulters and waived defensive end Jeremy Geathers, tight end Ronnie Ghent, defensive end Marcus Pittman, safety David Roach, guard Isaiah Ross and tackle Brian Stamper.

Training camp Afternoon Notes 7/28/08

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:38:59 -0500

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 ? 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.

Saints 7/28 Morning Practice Notes

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:58:56 -0500

These notes were taken by James Blake and Jean-Paul Bergeaux while personally attending the Saints Training Camp practices. They are raw scribbles and are not meant to be grammatically correct. They may not be perfectly correct and sometimes may not even make sense to the "casual Saints fan". With that disclaimer, here we go! _______________________________________________________ Some notes as the practice started. Henderson, McKenzie, Porter, Bullocks and Blythe were all in shorts on the sidelines as the players warmed up. Deuce did what I think is his normal trainer stretching on the sidelines to warm up. *First drill was punt returns with Coach O working the DL on one side and OL and QBs doing snap practice on the other end. Brees was practicing with Goodwin, Brunell with Lehr and Palko with Rob Hunt. Punt returners were Moore, Green, and Bush with Devery hanging out with them but not dressed, so just listening. As the players were jogging around, you could hear a coach yelling "Come on David Roach! You ready to be a gunner today?!?!" No real action on the punts. No lines, just punts with all making a catch. *Next was a red zone walk through at half speed. 1st team was Brees throwing to Cambell and Shockey on screen passes. Then a dump off to Reggie. Not a lot of real action, seem to be just getting the play moves right. Of note was that Meachem, Patten and Colston were lining up in the first team for three wide receiver sets with Colston being the slot receiver. Billy Miller was on the 1st team as the TE as well. Shockey seemed to be talking to the coaches around him a lot. Asking a lot of questions. 1st team defense was lead by Brian Young (returning) and Hollis Thomas at DT and Mitchell at MLB. Vilma was running with the second team. One thing that I thought was interesting was that you could see Drew going through his progressions. There were no misses or dropped passes except a lazy effort on a low pass by Patten. *Team stretching directed by coaches. Porter and Henderson did not stretch, Bullocks, Blythe and MM did stretch. *Sleds for O and pick drills for D. *O was running gauntlet (for RB/FB) while D was doing pass catching for CBs and angle practice for S. *Next was "jamming off the line" practice for WR and CBs. Meachem couldn't beat Gay off the line. A coach started yelling at him as he passed him and Meachem said something to him. Coach responded with "Don't slip then!" Meachem got lined up against Gay again and beat him the second time to the praise of the same coach. Arrington Juked Jason David on the line. *WR Pivot catches. In this drill, they had 3 orange spots for the WR to run up to, stop, turn and catch as they came out of the break. All caught the passes well, but Colston who had two drops in a row and was pretty mad about it. Kicking the final ball off the field slightly. The coach kept yelling "Run THROUGH it! Accelerate!" The only WR that seemed to do it right was Patten. *QBs throwing shoulder catches with another WR trailing behind for distractions. *Normal passing route throw from QBs while D-line and O-line were practicing at the end zones. All of the DL were running through four dummies lined up and then charging a coach who threw the ball over their heads. The D-lineman were extending to tip or intercept the ball. All seemed to do well, but seemed to be very much an easy drill, setup in the DL favor to look good. Only thing of note on the QB/WR was Carlos Robinson getting reamed for catching a ball into his body. "Catch with your hands!" was heard. *Next was some pass drills w/ QBs. Four different passers (coach as 4th) throw passes to four different patterns. Shibby and I were a little concerned for a minute while Colston seemed to be paying attention to his calf in between drills. Then a trainer came up and cut a sleeve off of his leg (longer knee sleeve?) and then he seemed fine with no concerns to worry about. Also right as the drill was starting, David Patten wandered away from the group with a very mad look on his face, and limping with his left leg. He walked around for a while and returned to the group with no ill effects that we could tell. *Next was one of the BEST drills we saw! One on one WR against CBs with QBs throwing to them. This is a very difficult drill for CBs where time is not an issue and they have no help from anyone over the top. It made for some interesting competitions. Wale Dada was covering Colston on the first one and made a NICE play on the ball preventing the pass. Usama Young was on David Patten, who won by catching a good ball. Greg Fassitt was beat by Lance Moore. Adrian Arrington BURNED Aaron Glenn on a double move and the ball was over thrown. Arrington laid out for the ball and caught it, maintaining control as he hit the ground. It was probably the highlight catch for a WR all day. Cheers erupted and people were encouraging both Glenn and Arrington after the play. Jason Craft couldn't prevent a good pass to Robert Meachem. Skyler Green juked Jason David on a comeback pass. Reggie turned and blazed to a good catch over Usama Young. Fassitt was beat on a comeback by Copper similar to Green's over David. Colston did the same comeback over Aaron Glenn. Shockey had a nice slant catch to beat Jason Craft. Patten beat Wale Dada. Jason David had BLANKET coverage on Lance Moore, but a pinpoint pass by Drew got in anyway. Arrington tried to blaze past Young, but Young stuck with him well, tipped the ball and then grabbed an INT. The INT might have been reviewable in a game, as the ball did hit the ground while in Young's hand, but he seemed to have control of it. It was a BEAUTIFUL play by Young and drew a ton of cheers and sounds from the crowd. Shockey beat Dada. Meachem had a nice cut inside to beat Jason David. Carlos Robinson couldn't shake Young, Young was in his face and at the last minute, tipped the ball away with a hand in Robinson's face. Reggie beat Jason David. Colston beat Dada only because of his size domination over Dada. Shockey caught a back shoulder pass that was perfect from Drew over Jason Craft. *Punt Return drills were next. They started from short yardage (2 yard line) where it would be difficult for the punt team to defend. Reggie miss judged the first punt, but recovered and caught it. Reggie couldn't escape Copper and Young (no blockers at all) and they said something and laughed together. Moore also miss judged the punt next, but recovered and caught it. Skyler Green was perfect on his punt return, but again no one was able to run very far because the gunners were usually right there when they caught the punt. (Again, no one had any blockers.) Interestingly Tuff Harris returned a punt next, which I had not heard or seen earlier. We were thinking that it was just because Devery Henderson was sitting out. Reggie was perfect on next punt and then Moore did something entertaining on the next one, he tried to use the coaches as interference, running through a group standing together. He didn't escape completely, but it was funny. Skyler Green fielded the next punt perfectly, but it was a VERY good angled punt by I believe Weatherford. Green caught it with one foot barely out of bounds. Reggie finally broke one even without blockers as he out ran Copper and a defensive player that I didn't catch and broke up the sidelines. *Goal line punts were next. Mostly the returner had to get out of the way as the ball was landing at the 2 to 5 yard line and the gunners were trying to down it before it went over the goal line. Weatherford kicked a perfect kick, but Meachem missed the ball as it rolled into the end zone. Coaches started screaming at Meachem. Prather had a perfect backward spinning punt that died at the 1 yard line and was caught by Arrington to down it inside the 2 yard line. Weatherford then topped that with a PERFECT sideline punt that would have gone out of bounds and been spotted at about the 2 yard line. Prather kicked a tough one to get and Jason David made a half hearted effort, but might have been able to get it if he had put more effort in it. Tuff Harris ran full speed from the other side gunner spot and almost got to the ball to down it before it bounded into the end zone. Weatherford then kicked a nice punt inside the 5 and Aaron Glenn miss-judged the ball and it got by him to roll into the end zone instead of getting downed. Reggie fielded a ball at the 5 yard line, I think because he was tired of letting the ball go by him. J They then flipped around and did a new punt drill. This one was a "max protect" line for the punter where there were no gunners, a full rush and the outside protectors became gunners for the punt return, with blockers trying to stop them. This produced more chances for the PR to get into the open field, as there were only 2 tacklers against 4 blockers and a punt returner. The line didn't really make an effort. Moore, Green, and Reggie all had good returns with Reggie out running them sometimes, but mostly blockers allowing the PR to get out. *Break Tuff Harris seemed to be wincing in pain as he limped, but then kept playing and remained in the practice at full speed. *They did a Red Zone walk through again, not at full speed and little contact. Several plays practiced, but nothing noteworthy except a dropped pass by Meachem from Brunell (2nd team). *Full speed Red Zone practice for all three groups. -Brees started the first team. off by hitting Colston for a twisting "Colston-like" body contorting pass. The DB came up (didn't see who it was) to try to make a play, which is why Colston did the twisting. The DB missed and fell down as Colston caught the ball, kept upright and took off open and free. GREAT catch (of course). NOTE: This is not the play at this link. That play was from the beginning of the second 1st string run (I note it later) http://www.coxsportstv.com/WebSite/PopupFlashVideo.aspx?VideoId=482 Something of note was that Mark Simoneau was running the 1st team D as MLB. Brees hit Billy Miller. Gay made a NICE play on the ball to knock it away from Colston. Colston had done his normal goal line catch domination because of his size, but Gay had none of it as he knocked the ball out before Colston came down with both feet. Run up the middle by Deuce. Brees was getting a lot of pressure from Charles Grant. Brees threw a side arm AROUND Grant as he came in right to Shockey for a short gain. Good instincts by Brees and good short route and catch by Shockey. With pressure on Brees, Copper wasn't able to pull in a bad throw over the middle. There was some debate over whether the pass was to Shockey or Copper, but the majority voted it was Copper. J It's worth noting that the D-line was getting good pressure on all three QBs with all three D-lines and O-lines playing. -2nd team came on with Brunell throwing a bad pass to Lance Moore in the right flats area. The ball went almost right to Usama Young, who made the INT. Again the D-line had a lot of pressure on Brunell. (For some reason I missed who was running MLB with the second team. Since Mitchell was running 3rd team, I assume it was Vilma? Anyone see this?) Yet again the D-line is dominating. Brunell couldn't find a receiver and got flushed out to the left side for what would have been a short rushing gain. Arrington dropped a TOUGH catch from Brunell over Greg Fassitt. It wasn't good coverage and wasn't a bad drop by Arrington, yet it was not a completion. Probably in an effort to relieve the pressure by the D, they called a reverse. Meachem had good speed on the reverse and would have gotten free for a good gain. We didn't notice it, but we think that Arrington either sold the pass or had a good block on Fassitt, as he was not even near the side that Meachem came on (which was the left side where Arrington had been lined up). Since they were only 10 yards from the end zone (this was almost all red zone play), Arrington must have had a good block at some point to pull it off. Brunell followed it up with a good throw to Adrian Arrington, who made the catch. Looked like a normal successful play. Arrington switched to the right side and had a WR in the slot. A pick/screen play got Arrington a short catch in traffic. Good catch and showed good concentration. -Palko came in with the 3rd string. (As noted before Mitchell was running the MLB with 3rd string D) Palko completed a screen to Lance Moore. Outside run by Lynnell Hamilton was a good run. Showed some speed and running ability. Palko completed short pass to Buck Ortega, and Ortega got a few yards after stumbling with no defensive player around him. They started with a stack of two WRs in the slot position with no WR on the outside. After the WR cleared out on patterns, Palko completed a quick pass to RB Olanyi Sobomehin coming up behind where the WR stack had been. Screen pass to Barclay which Barclay turned into a nice run. Palko finished off his chance with a bad pass

Training Camp 2008: Breakdown of the Saints Safties

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:31:08 -0500

2007 Summary: Josh Bullocks has been the starting free safety for the Saints since he was picked by the Saints in the second round of the 2005 NFL draft. But in three years, Bullocks has yet to fulfill his potential. Fast, with quick hips and great athleticism, Bullocks, again in 2007, seemed out of position often. Many blame some of the long pass plays on Bullocks not being in the right place, making the cornerbacks look worse than they actually have performed. Bullocks was injured for a couple of games late in the season, being replaced by the much less athletic, but smart and hard working Kevin Kaesviharn. Kaesviharn played well, but was not overly spectacular. 2008 Offseason: The Saints did not sign any big name free safeties in free agency, but did pick up a second year practice squad player, Tuff Harris, from the Miami Dolphins. If nothing else, his name sounds cool. ? Not drafting any free safeties, the Saints got lucky and picked up David Roach, one of the top 10 safeties in the class of 2008 as an UDFA. Many were surprised Roach was not picked up in the late rounds of the draft. Player summary: Tuff Harris (35) Chris Reis (39) David Roach (37) Kevin Kaesviharn (43) Josh Bullocks (29) It has to be mentioned that more than likely, one of these players will end up being the backup strong safety behind rising star Roman Harper. Chris Reis filled that spot on the 2007 roster, but that could mean nothing as both Tuff Harris and David Roach have the size and speed to fill both the free and strong safety roles. But, with that in mind, let's focus first on the starting free safety role. As mentioned before, Josh Bullocks was supposed to be the answer for the Saints at Free Safety. Drafted in the second round means that he was expected to at least be a solid starter for several years. Instead, Bullocks seems to either be confused, or just have bad instincts. Either way, Bullocks seems to be in the wrong place often. One can make a case for bad instincts as it was often said in his first and second year that Bullocks was hesitant to make a decision in the midst of a play. In 2007 it wasn't as clear cut that Bullocks was hesitant, yet he was still out of position a lot. It could have been bad schemes by Gary Gibbs, who knows, but in the end, Josh Bullocks is not shining brightly. First a bit about Chris Reis. Reis was a stand out NFL Europa player in his final season, earning defensive player of the week and making some big plays to help his team. He is decently fast for a safety, running a 4.52 at the 2006 combine (Bullocks ran a 4.49 in 2005), but Reis is problem is general athleticism. His hips seem stiff and he has a hard time keeping with faster receivers. He does have good instincts, and can hit, so he probably has to make it at backup strong safety to make the team. Kevin Kaesviharn is an interesting story. Kaesviharn graduated from Division II Augustana in San Diego in 1997. Determined to play professional football, he bounced around NFL training camp, the XFL and Arena Football League, until finally getting a real chance to play in Cincinnati when he played 10 games in 2001. Since that year, he was always the fan favorite in a "Rudy" sort of way. The player with a great heart for playing, but considered to have a low ceiling of potential. Keasvisharn would get replaced by rookies or free agents in Cincinnati, but kept performing well enough to get out on the field and make plays. He was in and out of the line up as the organization kept trying to replace him, until 2006 when he had a team leading 6 interceptions in 14 games. The Saints picked him up as a free agent in 2007, presumably to push Bullocks and give him someone he could learn from. Kaesviharn started a couple of games in 2007 and played admirably (some would say better than Bullocks), but at 32 is not the long term answer to free safety. In order for him to win the starting job, he would really have to shine brightly, as he has to be thought of as short term stop gap at best. More than likely Kaesviharn will make the team if healthy, however a starting role by one of the young guys, not named Bullocks, could push him off the roster. So, now Tuff Harris and David Roach enter the picture. Tuff Harris was on the Dolphins practice squad for most of the 2007 season. He did make it on the real roster, but was not active, but for one game, with no stats. Considering that the Dolphins were 1-15 and have no big names at safety, one has to wonder if he is just a camp body. Harris did post a 4.53 40 at the 2007 combine, so his speed is decent, but until camp starts, his abilities are going to be a mystery. David Roach has a little more promise, mainly because he is a rookie and didn't sit on a bad team's practice squad last year. On top of that Roach has chip on his shoulder after not being drafted. Roach was expected to be picked in the draft, even having a late second round draft, early third round rating by some. He has publicly expressed a desire to make every team that passed on him (which would be every team) wish they hadn't. The problem many thought they saw was stiff hips and a change of direction problem, both important to the free safety position. If true, this is a similar to the description of Chris Reis and considering that Roach is listed at 6'-2" and 215 lbs, he may end up kicking Reis out of the backup strong safety position. So watch for a battle between Tuff Harris, Kevin Kaesviharn and Josh Bullocks, with a possibility that David Roach could play his way into the fight if he proves the scouts wrong about his hips and change of direction abilities.

Training Camp Battles to Watch

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:58:25 -0500

As Saints training camp approaches, starting on July 24th, there are going to be several very interesting battles for starting positions as well as roster spots. In the next few days we will provide you with some details of what positions to watch and some details about whom you will be watching. First let's define what positions we will be giving detailed player by player information on: CB: Due to Mike McKenzie's injury, we will probably see a lot more action at both right and left cornerback. Even if MM is completely healthy, Jason David will have a battle on his hands to maintain his starting position at RCB. WLB: With Jonathan Vilma more than likely locking down the MLB spot and Fujita returning as the SLB, there is going to be a fierce battle for the WLB spot. Mark Simoneau started at the MLB position and Scott Shanle returns after being last years starting WLB. What about Marvin Mitchell and JoLonn Dunbar? The rest of these position battles we will not be giving player by player breakdowns, but will be giving a summary of the position and competition. RB: Reggie Bush may be the star and Deuce McAllister may be the work horse, but right now, neither has a lock on the starting position. Can Reggie emerge as a full time starter? Can Deuce recover completely and show that he can carry the rock another year? What about Pierre Thomas? DT: Last year was a down year for the Saints D-line. The DE weren't perceived to be the problem, DT was. Young was hurt all year, Hollis Thomas came in overweight and now they have to face two rookies down, DeMario Pressley and Sedrick Ellis to keep their starting jobs. K: Martin Gramatica came in late last year to hold up the Saints kicking game as Olindo Mare failed to deliver. The Saints drafted a big legged kicker in Taylor Mehlhaff, who will win? TE: This position is probably the most painful to watch, but it will be a heated competition. The Saints haven't brought in any big name free agents as some fans had hoped *cough*SHOCKEY*cough*, and didn't draft any hopefuls at TE either. So the competition against the same TEs will be fierce, but probably not exciting. OL: This may come as a shock to some Saints fans to be here. The Saints have a very good pass blocking O-line that gave up a league low sack total. However, the run blocking was poor and Drew Brees' smarts account for some of that low sack total. The Saints have two 2007 draft picks and a 2008 draft pick that have a lot of promise. FS: Josh Bullocks has the athleticism to be a great FS, but he has not been able to translate that into stellar play. Kevin Kaesviharn figures to challenge Bullocks for the starting spot and don't forget about UDFA David Roach. WR: No, we're not talking about Colston. Marques is more than likely headed to a Pro-Bowl soon. We are, however, talking about the spot next to him. David Patten was a great asset last year, but Robert Meachem and a few others could challenge him for that starting spot across from Colston. The details of the training camp battles will come out in the following days as they are ready. Keep tabs on this page and get ready for some football!