Cornerback Marshon Lattimore’s practice participation is trending in the right direction ahead of the Saints’ Sunday game against the Panthers.
Lattimore was limited in practice on Wednesday because of a hip injury, but he was bumped up to full participation in Thursday’s session. That suggests he’s on track to play in the opener.
Assuming he does, it will be his first appearance since Week 10 of last season. Lattimore missed the rest of the year with an ankle injury and he was limited to seven games in 2022, so the Saint will be hoping that news continues to be positive on the health front.
The Saints made one other change to their injury report. Wide receiver A.T. Perry missed practice with a hand injury after not appearing on the report at all on Wednesday. Linebacker Willie Gay (back) and guard Nick Saldiveri (calf) were limited for the second day in a row while linebacker Jaylan Ford (hamstring), tight end Dallin Hooker (ankle), linebacker D’Marco Jackson (calf), and defensive tackle Khalen Saunders (calf) missed practice again.
Saints Clips
Panthers running back Miles Sanders injured his finger in Wednesday’s practice when he hit it on a helmet. Sanders had his finger wrapped afterward and was headed to get it examined but expects to be ready for the season opener, Steve Reed of the Associated Press reports.
“Sucks this happened before Week 1,” he said.
Coach Dave Canales also said he expects Sanders to play.
Chuba Hubbard beat out Sanders for the job early last season, but both backs will have roles at least until rookie Jonathon Brooks returns. Brooks tore an ACL in November while at the University of Texas.
Sanders had 156 touches for 586 yards and a touchdown last season, his first with the Panthers.
Tight ends Tommy Tremble (hamstring/back) and Ian Thomas (calf) did not practice Wednesday, prompting the Panthers to sign tight end Messiah Swinson off the Packers’ practice squad.
Backup tackle Yosh Nijman (tibia) was limited.
The Saints have a couple of defensive starters listed as limited participants in practice in their first injury report of the season.
Cornerback Marshon Lattimore is dealing with a hip injury and linebacker Willie Gay has a back injury.
Lattimore was limited to 10 games by an ankle injury last season and he only played seven games after lacerating his kidney in 2022, which is part of the reason why his name came up in trade chatter this offseason. The Saints didn’t move him, though, and he’s set to start against the Panthers this Sunday as long as he’s healthy enough to go.
Linebacker Pete Werner (shoulder) was a full participant and guard Nick Saldiveri (calf) was limited. Linebacker Jaylan Ford (hamstring), tight end Dallin Hokker (ankle), linebacker D’Marco Jackson (calf), and defensive tackle Khalen Saunders (calf) did not practice.
The Falcons signed quarterback Nathan Peterman to their practice squad Tuesday, the team announced. In a corresponding move, the Falcons cut offensive lineman Julién Davenport.
The Falcons have Kirk Cousins and rookie Michael Penix on their 53-player roster at the position.
The Raiders cut Peterman out of the preseason after the Saints released him early in training camp. He completed 12 of 19 passes for 108 yards with one touchdown in preseason play.
Peterman, 30, entered the NFL as a fifth-round pick of the Bills in 2017, and he spent his first two seasons in Buffalo.
In 15 career games, Peterman has completed 53 percent of his throws for 712 yards with four touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
The Panthers have let go of a veteran linebacker.
Carolina announced on Tuesday that the club has released K’Lavon Chaisson.
Chaisson, 25, was the Jaguars’ No. 20 overall pick out of LSU in 2020. But he has not lived up to that level of production, registering just 5.0 sacks with 11 tackles for loss and 23 quarterback hits in 57 career games. He’s also started 11 contests, though none since 2021.
Last season, Chaisson picked up 2.0 sacks with four tackles for loss and eight QB hits. \
The Panthers signed him as a free agent in March.
Carolina will start its season on Sunday with a matchup against the Saints.
There won’t be a last-minute contract extension for Saints running back Alvin Kamara before the start of the regular season.
Kamara walked out of the team’s mandatory minicamp this spring as part of a push for a new deal, but he reported to training camp on time and has been taking part in football activities heading into the season. Kamara told reporters on Monday that it would have been “cool” if something came together during camp, but that it is now ""too late for contract talk.”
“I’m kind of at the point where I’m not even talking about it until after the season,” Kamara said.
Kamara has two years left on his current contract, but has no guaranteed money and a $29 million cap hit next year. It’s hard to imagine he’ll play out the year under that deal, so Sunday’s game may be the start of his final chapter in New Orleans.
The last player drafted before Patrick Mahomes keeps looking for his next chance.
Receiver John Ross, the 10th overall pick in the 2018 draft, had a tryout with the Saints on Monday.
Another former first-round receiver, Phillip Dorsett, participated as well.
Other receivers joining them for the tryout were Ihmir Smith-Marsette, David Wallis, and Jahcour Pearson.
The Saints also worked out punters Corliss Waitman and Trenton Gill.
Ross, who was drafted by the Bengals, last played in 2021. He was cut last week by the Eagles.
Dorsett was a first-round pick of the Colts in 2015. He spent 2023 with the Broncos, who released him last week.
Alvin Kamara wants a long-term deal, and absent one, the running back knows this could be his final season in New Orleans. With that backdrop, reporters in New Orleans asked Kamara about listing his New Orleans home for sale.
“You looking for a house?” Kamara said, smiling, via Matthew Paras of nola.com.
Kamara’s 6,924-square-foot house, built in 2022, is for sale for $2.75 million. He calls himself a “serial entrepreneur” who dabbles in many things, including the real estate market.
“I wouldn’t say I had . . . an exact plan, but I had plans,” Kamara said. “I’m pretty intentional when it comes to those moves that I make with real estate. I got other properties around the city, too. So if I sell [the house] today, I’ll have somewhere to be, so I’m good.”
Kamara has two years remaining on his contract, with his 2024 salary cap hit of $18.5 million the highest on the team. He has no guaranteed money for 2025 and a $29 million cap hit. So, the Saints assuredly will move on and recoup $18.9 million in cap savings if the sides can’t agree to a new deal.
In June, Kamara walked out of the team’s last day of mandatory minicamp to express his displeasure with the state of talks.
Despite his future being in doubt, his immediate future is in his hands.
“I feel like there is no time to waste, because let’s just say I’m at the halfway point, if I were to play 16 years,” said Kamara, who is entering his eighth season. “Or 10 years, I’m on the back end of my career. I don’t want to waste no time.
“I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘I’ve got time. I’ve got time.’ Ain’t no time, so I’m trying to run it up. I’m trying to do what I can to have the most success. And in this league, we measure success by Super Bowls and playing in February. That’s what I’m trying to get to.”
Kamara has never had a 1,000-yard season, but he made five consecutive Pro Bowls to start his career. Last season, he 694 yards and five touchdowns in 13 games.
On one hand, it’s way too early to think about where Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott might play in 2025. On the other hand, it’s right on time.
Everyone knows Dak has a clear, unimpeded shot to free agency in March, little more than six months away. Once the 2024 season gets going and some teams win and some teams don’t, some teams will start making their plans for 2025. And some teams might start talking to someone close to Dak about next year. Tampering rules be damned.
Franchise quarterbacks rarely make it to the open market. It’s never been known half a year in advance that it’s coming. In 2012, Peyton Manning was cut in February. In 2020, the notion that Tom Brady would leave New England didn’t crystallize until later in the year. Even then, it seemed inconceivable.
This year, we know what’s coming. Owner Jerry Jones said there won’t be a new deal for Dak before the season starts. There’s no reason for Dak to do a deal during the season or immediately after it. Before he stays in Dallas, he owes it to himself to figure out what’s behind Door No. 2 or Door No. 3. Or Door No. 4.
So which teams might be interested in Dak? Much of it depends on what happens this season. But we know there can’t be good teams without bad teams. Eighteen teams will miss the playoffs. Those teams, in the process of picking up the pieces, could decide to make a play for Prescott.
Here are the teams on our radar screen, for now:
1. Giants.
Their feelings about Daniel Jones became obvious during Hard Knocks. And Jones knows it. And it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Jones contract gives the Giants an escape hatch after this season. Wouldn’t it be great for the Giants to steal Dak from a division rival?
It would be a nice bookend to the Eagles swiping running back Saquon Barkley from the Giants earlier this year.
2. Jets.
Aaron Rodgers said it himself earlier this year. If the Jets fail this year, everyone is gone.
Well, not everyone. But coach Robert Saleh will be gone. And Rodgers likely will be, too. Possibly of his own volition.
And the Jets, if they don’t make it to the playoffs again this year, would love to have the kind of one-and-out postseasons the Cowboys have endured. For plenty of teams, consistently failing to get to the conference championship is better than consistently failing to get to the postseason at all.
3. Raiders.
The Raiders missed out on one of the six first-round quarterbacks picked in 2024. They’re rolling the dice with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell.
If it doesn’t work, Dak becomes an obvious option for 2025.
Of course, Dak would have to want to jump into a division that includes Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Bo Nix (if he ends up being a keeper). But the Raiders, barring a playoff berth in 2024, could be an option.
4. Steelers.
Between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, most assume that one will be winning a Water-Pik and the other will be getting fired after 2024.
The Steelers could choose to fire both, depending on what happens this year. They cleared out the quarterback depth chart after a playoff berth in 2023. They could do it again.
Would they pay Dak market value? Here’s the thing about free agency. Dak could choose to go to a team and a coach for less than market value.
After having Jerry Jones try to persuade him for years to take less than he could get elsewhere, Dak could stick it to the Cowboys by choosing to take less from one of their biggest AFC rivals.
5. Saints.
Derek Carr is in the second year of his deal with the Saints. The Saints can easily escape it after 2024.
And Dak grew up in Louisiana.
This is one to watch, especially if Carr and the Saints don’t make it to the postseason this season.
6. Seahawks.
Geno Smith has a year-to-year deal. Sam Howell might or might not be a viable successor. The Seahawks will know much more by the end of the season.
They already know that Dak will be available.
7. Rams.
There are plenty of indications this could be Matthew Stafford’s last season in L.A. The Rams might need a replacement in 2024.
I wonder if they’d be interested in a veteran quarterback whose teams have chronically underachieved?
They were in 2021, when they traded for Stafford. They could get Dak with having to eff them picks.
Could there be other teams? Sure. While plenty of teams clearly won’t be interested, any one season can go sufficiently sideways to prompt a franchise that currently isn’t looking for help to change its mind.
Randy Mueller is returning to the Saints.
Jeff Duncan of nola.com reports that the Saints are hiring their former General Manager as a full-time advisor in the team’s front office.
Mueller served as the Saints’ GM from 2000-01 and later was the GM of the Dolphins from 2005-07. He most recently was director of player personnel with the Seattle Sea Dragons.
He joins his longtime friend, current General Manager Mickey Loomis, in the front office working primarily in the club’s pro and college scouting departments and assisting in strategic planning initiatives, according to Duncan.
Mueller advised the Saints unofficially during the NFL draft and he attended the team’s training camp in Irvine, California, earlier this month.
He becomes the third former General Manager in the Saints’ front office, joining Dave Ziegler and Jeff Ireland. Ziegler, hired as a senior personnel advisor earlier this year, was the Raiders’ General Manager from 2022-23. Ireland, who is the Saints’ director of college scouting and assistant GM, was the Dolphins’ GM from 2008-13.
