The Saints had coaches spend Wednesday night at the team facility out of an abundance of caution after Hurricane Francine made landfall in southeast Louisiana at 5 p.m. CT.
“We’ll probably find a corner of the room to lay down in at some point in time and get a little sleep,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said, via the Associated Press. “The most significant weather is going to be this evening into the early morning hours, and so that’s kind of when we’d be trying to wrap up. I don’t see anybody trying to get out of here in that type of weather.”
The Saints moved up practice an hour on their indoor field to allow players to get home to ride out the storm.
“We do have a job to do. Even when circumstances aren’t perfect, we still have to focus,” Saints quarterback Derek Carr said. “I’ll be home studying tonight, you know, but I’ll be doing it with all my kids sitting right next to me.
“I owe it to my teammates to be locked in and be ready to go for tomorrow. We’re human, but we also recognize we have a job to do. And we also recognize that, you know, our city has been through a lot. And so our prayers are with our whole state of Louisiana, you know, wherever this is passing through.”
Francine struck 30 miles southwest of Morgan City as a Category 2 storm.
The Saints headquarters has generator power and has held up in stronger storms than Francine, notably Katrina in 2005 and Ida in 2021. The team evacuated for those two storms, though.
Allen is hoping the Saints can return to a normal schedule Thursday if New Orleans avoids significant damage.
“We want everybody to be safe, and yet we still felt we could get our work done and keep everybody safe and not have to try to go through all the logistics to go through an evacuation,” Allen said.
Saints Clips
Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson isn’t sure he will play Sunday, but the fact that it’s a possibility is a blessing.
Ferguson thought he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the season-opening victory over the Browns when he heard a pop.
“I’m like a starfish,” Ferguson said, via Todd Archer of ESPN.
Ferguson was diagnosed with a Grade 1 medial collateral ligament sprain. He said his pain level is a “zero” and he will try to run Thursday.
“Thankfully just a little bone bruise,” Ferguson said, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com.
The Cowboys hope he can play through it against the Saints.
Ferguson had three catches for 15 yards against the Browns.
Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson suffered a sprained MCL in Week One, but that may not keep him off the field for Week Two.
Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones said today on 105.3 The Fan that he’s optimistic Ferguson could play on Sunday against the Saints.
“We really did dodge a bullet,” Jones said. “He’s very excited about playing, I saw him right after our meetings yesterday and he was excited about it. Like everybody, I know he was worried sick when it initially happened. . . . It would have been a blow and we’re relieved about it.”
Ferguson is the Cowboys’ starting tight end and had three catches for 15 yards before leaving Sunday’s game against the Browns with the knee injury.
Linebacker Khaleke Hudson is on his way to Cleveland.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Browns are signing Hudson off of the Saints’ practice squad. There’s no word on any corresponding move.
Hudson signed with the Saints this offseason after spending his first four seasons with the Commanders. Hudson, who was a fifth-round pick in 2020, signed to the practice squad in New Orleans after being released last week and he played 24 snaps in Sunday’s win over the Panthers.
In 58 games with the Commanders, Hudson made 12 starts and had 108 tackles, a sack, and two passes defensed.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young was pressured throughout the team’s 47-10 loss to the Saints on Sunday and Carolina head coach Dave Canales said much of that falls on coaching.
Young was sacked four times with New Orleans registering five QB hits in the contest. In his Monday news conference, Canales said that some of reading the pressures falls on Young, but as the head coach, he and the rest of the staff did not provide Young enough help.
"[H]onestly, it’s on the coaching staff. It’s on us,” Canales said. “We sat there like we were sitting ducks. We didn’t do enough to put our guys — to give them simpler solutions in some of those. This is one of the best third-down pressure packages that you’re going to go against. We saw it Week 1. We’ve been against it before. We had a plan. [Dennis Allen] had counters. We got out coached in that regard. I take that personal.
“There was one that Bryce could have seen, and he could have flipped the protection. He’s been fantastic doing that. That’s the only one I would say that he could have really fixed the problem. [The Saints] gave us issues with what they did. We need to do better than that. That’s coaching.”
What does Canales mean that he takes it personal?
“For me, I take it personal any time that I feel like I’m putting our players at a disadvantage where they don’t have simple solutions,” Canales said.
In general, Canales said he thought Young had a “solid day” with his footwork.
“As we went through the grades, looking at his footwork and the discipline of it, it was there,” Canales said. “I think he missed a couple of throws. I think that he’s learning some of his guys, and we’ve gotten all these reps and we’ve got to keep accumulating those reps. But what I saw from him was just kind of missing a few of his opportunities that he had there, and I also have to give the Saints credit for covering us really well and they made it hard and it forced accurate throws and that’s something that we have to make sure we cash in on when we have those opportunities.”
Young ended the contest 13-of-30 for 161 yards with two interceptions.
Canales, Young, and the Panthers will try to turn things around when they host the Chargers on Sunday.
Saints head coach Dennis Allen didn’t want his team listening to outside voices ahead of their opening game against the Panthers and he doesn’t want them listening to it after their 47-10 win either.
Allen said that he wants the team to remember that a lot of the people who are complimenting the team for their play in Week One were the same ones predicting dismal results for the Saints this season, so he’d prefer if players just tune them out across the board.
“I told the team this today: There’s a lot of people outside the building that didn’t think we were capable of doing much,” Allen said, via Luke Johnson of NOLA.com. “Those same people are probably saying a lot of great things about you today that were saying a lot of negative things about you before yesterday’s game. So we try not to pay much attention to that, we’re trying to focus on what our job is, what we need to do, and how we get better. We know we’re going to have an extremely tough challenge this Sunday going up to Dallas.”
Beating up on a team coming off a 2-15 season with a new coach and a roster that’s lacking talent across the board is a good way to feel good about yourself at the start of a season, but it’s not a great measuring stick for the long run and Allen is smart to keep his team’s eyes on what’s in front of them.
Bryce Young and the Panthers had a rough start to the 2024 season with Sunday’s 47-10 loss to the Saints.
Young, the No. 1 pick of the 2023 draft, finished the contest 13-of-30 passing for 161 yards with two interceptions. He was also sacked four times before new head coach Dave Canales put in Andy Dalton at the end of the game.
In his postgame press conference, Young noted that the Panthers have to move forward.
“Of course, you want to come out and start on a high note. It didn’t happen today and that’s tough,” Young said. “We’re going to wear that today. We’re going to learn from it when we turn the film on tomorrow.
“But that doesn’t define us. Obviously, [it’s] a long year and we have to attack it with urgency and make sure that we’re urgent about cleaning things up and fix what we’ve got to fix. But we’ve got to turn the page. Again, it’s a tough league. Would’ve been great to win a game — obviously, the goal is to win every one. It wasn’t the case. So, that’s how it is. We’ve got to turn the page and then focus on next week.”
Young was asked if it potentially helps that it’s just Week 1 so that the team can flush what happened to start the year and improve.
“I think we don’t have a choice,” Young said. “Again, we’ve got to get ready for next week. You dwell too long or you let it affect you — obviously, that’s something we can’t do. [In] the league, you don’t have a choice. We have to let it be what it is.
“Again, it’s fresh right now, so you feel the emotions more. But you’ve got to be able to move on.”
Young and the Panthers will host Justin Herbert, Jim Harbaugh, and the Chargers in Week 2.
Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore has missed a lot of time with injuries the last two seasons, so his early exit from Sunday’s win over the Panthers felt like a return to the familiar for the veteran.
Lattimore appears to have avoided a major injury, however. Lattimore said after the game, via Luke Johnson of NOLA.com, that his hamstring felt good and described himself as “solid” and Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports that it is a minor injury.
While the injury is not severe, it could keep Lattimore from playing this week. The Saints will be in Dallas next Sunday and Wednesday will bring the first word on how much practice work Lattimore is able to do.
Lattimore had two tackles before his injury on Sunday.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara didn’t get the new contract he was looking for this offseason and said last week that it is “too late” to have those conversations.
On Sunday, Kamara showed that the contract issues aren’t impacting him on the field. Kamara ran 15 times for 83 yards and a touchdown in the Saints’ 47-10 rout of the Panthers and told reporters after the game that he’s only focused on what happens between the lines.
“I’m not worried about it. I’m here to play. I’m going to play. I’m going to perform. I don’t got no illness. I don’t got no mystery injury. I’m here. You know what I’m saying? I’m going to play, I’m going to perform, I’m going to be here with my teammates, coaches,” Kamara said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com. “Outside of all that, I think the most important thing, I mean, I love this city right? I love the fans. I love these people. They support me. They’ve been supporting me for years now, right? For me, in my head, it would be kind of selfish to not go out there. I mean, I interact with so many people every day. These people love me like I’m family. I feel the same way and vice versa. I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t come out here and try to put on for those people that have been supporting me.”
Kamara’s approach is a different one than other players have taken during their own contract pushes and the Saints benefitted from it on Sunday. If that continues, Kamara will have a good chance of getting what he’s looking for at some point down the road.
The Panthers were the worst team in the NFL in 2023. If Week One is any indication, not much has changed in 2024.
Carolina went to New Orleans for the season opener and got destroyed, in a game that the Saints led 17-0 in the first quarter and 30-0 in the second. The final score of 47-10 actually looked closer than the game really was because the Saints took their feet off the gas in the second half.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young is looking more and more like a draft bust. The first overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, Young had an ugly rookie season and played poorly again today, with some terrible passes that a top pick in Year Two should not be making. Sometimes when a highly drafted young quarterback is struggling you can say they have the physical tools but just haven’t learned to play at the NFL level yet, but Young looks like he lacks the physical tools to be a franchise quarterback.
Saints quarterback Derek Carr played well, completing 19 of 23 passes for 200 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Alvin Kamara had 15 carries for 83 yards and a touchdown.
But this game appeared to say more about the Panthers than it said about the Saints. Carolina has a long, long way to go. And it may not have its franchise quarterback.
