Since the Saints drafted running back Kendre Miller in the third round in 2023, he has spent more time in the training room than on the football field. He has had a meniscus injury in his right knee, a right knee sprain, a hamstring strain, a high ankle sprain and now another hamstring strain.
Saints coach Dennis Allen seems to be running out of patience with Miller’s unavailability.
“All I can go off of is what I’ve been able to evaluate and, quite frankly, since we drafted him, there hasn’t been a whole lot of new information other than what I saw on the college tape, because he hasn’t been available.” Allen said, via video from coachspeakindex. “For whatever the case may be. But it’s hard to make that evaluation. Hopefully, we can get him out here and have an opportunity to evaluate where he is. But it certainly makes it a lot more challenging, that’s for sure.”
Miller injured his hamstring in the first individual drill of training camp this summer and hasn’t returned.
The Saints still list him third on the depth chart behind Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams.
“He’s talented. I know he’s talented,” Allen said, “but I don’t know if he can learn the system. I don’t know if he can pick up the system, because I haven’t seen him out there.”
Miller played eight games last season, seeing 112 offensive snaps and five on special teams. He totaled 51 touches for 273 yards and a touchdown.
Saints Clips
Saints running back Alvin Kamara returned to practice Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
Kamara had not practiced in more than a week because of back tightness, which coach Dennis Allen said Aug. 13 wasn’t a big deal.
Kamara’s prolonged absence had prompted reporters to question Allen about whether Kamara was conducting an old-fashioned hold-in. Allen denied it had anything to do with Kamara’s desire for a contract extension, and now the five-time Pro Bowler is back on the field.
Kamara skipped the final practice of the mandatory minicamp in June as a way of showing his displeasure over his contract situation. But he had been a regular participant at training camp before his injury.
He 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.
The Saints open the season Sept. 8 against the Panthers.
The Saints added a cornerback Tuesday with rookie Kool-Aid McKinstry nursing a knee injury. McKinstry is expected to return in time for the season opener, but the Saints need depth at the position to get through the preseason finale.
New Orleans signed cornerback Joejuan Williams and waived center Sincere Haynesworth with an injury designation, the team announced.
Williams, 26, was most recently with the Vikings, who cut him May 14. He had remained a free agent since.
The Patriots drafted Williams in the second round in 2019, and he spent his first three seasons with New England. He played four games with the Bears last season and two with the Vikings.
In his career, Williams has appeared in 42 games with one start and has totaled 46 tackles and 10 pass breakups.
The Saints will practice on Tuesday night and tight end Juwan Johnson is set to get on the field for the first time this summer.
Johnson was placed on the physically unable to perform list to open camp, but multiple reports on Tuesday say that he has been activated. Johnson is also scheduled to talk to the media after practice.
Johnson had foot surgery in June and has spent the last couple of months rehabbing from that injury. The hope when he went under the knife was that he’d be back for Week One and Tuesday’s move keeps that in play.
Johnson had 37 catches for 368 yards and four touchdowns in 13 games last season.
Taysom Hill has spent his eight seasons with the Saints as a do-everything player, and he’s doing more this preseason, including lining up at both fullback and tailback.
Hill was playing in the backfield with the first-string offense in Sunday’s preseason game against the 49ers and he finished the game with five carries for 21 yards, including an impressive 11-yard run as a tailback and a one-yard plunge into the end zone as a fullback that gave the Saints their only touchdown of the game.
At fullback Hill also served as a lead blocker for running back Jamaal Williams. Hill and Williams were college teammates for five years at BYU, with Hill playing quarterback and handing off to Williams hundreds of times during their tenure together.
Saints head coach Dennis Allen said at the start of training camp that he’s excited about the role Hill is going to play in the Saints’ offense.
“He’s gonna do a lot of stuff. He’s gonna run routes from in line, out wide, out of the backfield, he’s going to block, he’s going to run the ball out of the backfield, I think he’s going to do a lot of stuff. He’s going to line up at the quarterback position at some point in time. I think he’s an awesome weapon to have,” Allen said.
Hill said new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is going to use the fullback position in new and interesting ways and that Hill will is looking forward to those snaps at fullback.
“I feel like the use of the fullback in this system, that role has been expanded,” Hill said. “I have done more of that.”
The Saints still plan to use Hill at times as a change-of-pace quarterback, but for now he’s working on different roles in the offense, as he continues to grow in his game.
Saints first-round pick Kool-Aid McKinstry left Sunday’s game after getting injured on the opening drive and he did not return to the matchup against the 49ers.
Head coach Dennis Allen offered an update on McKinstry’s condition after the game and said that the cornerback hurt his knee before adding that it doesn’t look like it will be an extended absence for the rookie.
“He has a knee injury, I think we avoided anything serious,” Allen said, via Jeremy Trottier of USAToday.com. “Now, what kind of time we are looking at, I really have no idea. But I think we escaped the game, at least on initial report, without any major injuries.”
More clarity about the timeline for McKinstry’s return should come in the near future and he’s got more than two weeks to recover before the season opener against the Panthers.
The Saints had a concerning injury early in Sunday night’s preseason game against the 49ers.
Rookie cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry, the team’s second-round selection, was hurt on the opening drive in a collision with 49ers receiver Trent Taylor on an incompletion. He went into the sideline medical tent initially before running on the sideline.
Eventually, McKinstry headed inside for further medical examination.
A sideline report, per Katherine Terrell of ESPN, says McKinstry has a right leg injury.
The Saints already were playing without corners Marshon Lattimore (hip flexor) and Paulson Adebo (groin).
Like many veteran quarterbacks, rookie broadcaster Tom Brady apparently doesn’t need to work in the preseason.
The new Fox No. 1 analyst isn’t in the booth for the network’s lone 2024 exhibition game, Saints at 49ers. Brady is nevertheless in the building, presumably working another practice game in advance of his formal debut, three weeks from today for Cowboys at Browns.
And it’s not the No. 2 Fox team, either. In lieu of Joe Davis and Greg Olsen, Adam Amin and Mark Sanchez have the call. For Amin, it made for a busy weekend; he called Saturday’s Bengals-Bears game.
Olsen’s presence at the game would make an awkward situation even more of the same, especially since he has won the last two Sports Emmys in the category Brady will now invade, after taking Olsen’s job.
Networks often assign their top booths to their preseason games. Why not give Brady a trial run, especially if he’s calling a preseason game anyway?
If nothing else, Brady’s presence would get more people to tune in to see how he does in the job. The other side of the coin, however, is that he’d potentially be criticized on social media for anything/everything social media wants to complain about. (That’s going to happen anyway, once he starts calling games.)
The whole thing feels like a missed opportunity at best, a not-so-subtle message that preseason is beneath Brady at worst. Regardless, unless he pays a visit to the No. 3 Fox booth during the game, we won’t see or hear him until Week 1.
The 49ers will be missing a couple of starting offensive linemen against the Saints this Sunday, but it doesn’t look like that will keep them from giving quarterback Brock Purdy his first action of the preseason.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked at the start of his Friday press conference whether the team would be playing starters against the Saints on Sunday.
“I want to play a number of them,” Shanahan said. “I wouldn’t say all of them, but I’d like to get a lot of them in there for at least a little bit. Wanted these three practices to go through so we could evaluate that. We haven’t told each player specifically.”
Shanahan then said that Purdy is one of the starters that he plans to play this week. Purdy played in two preseason games last summer while making his way back from an elbow injury.
Left tackle Trent Williams has not reported to camp and left guard Aaron Banks broke his pinky this week, so they are two of the starters that will not be in action.
Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed returned to full practice recently after dealing with a hamstring injury, but a new issue had him on the sideline Friday.
Head coach Dennis Allen said at his press conference that Shaheed did not practice because of an injury to his toe or foot. Allen did not say whether Shaheed was slated to play in Sunday’s preseason game, but any injury concern at this point in the calendar would point to the team taking a cautious approach.
Shaheed signed a one-year contract extension with the Saints this offseason that keeps him under contract through the 2025 campaign. He caught 46 passes for 719 yards and five touchdowns while also serving as the punt and kickoff returner in New Orleans last season. He returned one punt for a touchdown and averaged 13.6 yards per punt return.
Rookie tackle Taliese Fuaga also missed practice for the Saints. He’s dealing with back tightness, but Allen said the team expects he’ll be ready to go for the regular season.
