The Saints won four of their final five games during the 2023 season and finished with a winning record, but the late success wasn’t enough to lift the team to a postseason berth.
While the Saints fell short of their goals last year, quarterback Derek Carr does see something to build off from the way they finished last season. During an appearance with Adam Schein of Mad Dog Sports Radio, Carr said the team showed it can move forward through “a lot of different adversities” and can use that experience as a building block that puts them in better position for the coming season.
“Coming into this year, we’re just trying to build off of what we had last year,” Carr said. “The relationships, the bonds, the unity, the time we spend together. I felt like coming into this offseason, compared to last offseason, we’re 10 times farther ahead of where we were. And I mean that as a team, as a group, as a unit. The bonds that we have. It’s the ultimate team sport and that’s the most important thing is the team. So we’re stepping into this year trying to build off how last year ended.”
The Saints had the same record as the division-winning Bucs and the Falcons were 7-10 before an offseason that’s seen them change coaches while bringing in veterans like Kirk Cousins, Matthew Judon, and Justin Simmons. The Panthers figure to be better than they were while going 2-15 as well, so the NFC South should be competitive and hitting the ground running should help the Saints’ chances of navigating it successfully.
Saints Clips
Saints running back Alvin Kamara did not practice Tuesday because of back tightness that coach Dennis Allen said at the time wasn’t a big deal. Two days later, Kamara still has not returned.
That prompted a question to Allen about whether Kamara’s absence might be an old-school hold-in, with the running back not practicing because of his contract dispute with the team.
“As far as I know, zero related [to his contract],” Allen said, via Luke Johnson of nola.com. “He’s got some back tightness. This is something he’s dealt with before.”
Kamara skipped the final practice of the mandatory minicamp in June as a way of showing his displeasure over his contract situation. But Kamara has been a regular participant at training camp until Tuesday.
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 tweaked their 90-man roster on Wednesday.
The team announced that they have signed tight end Mason Fairchild. Defensive tackle Kyler Baugh was waived in a corresponding move.
It’s the second time that the Saints have signed Fairchild this month. He was signed on August 3 and let go a few days later, but the Saints are still working without Juwan Johnson and Fairchild gives them another body at tight end.
Fairchild was undrafted out of Kansas earlier this year. He had 82 catches for 1,111 yards and 10 touchdowns while playing for the Jayhawks.
Baugh was also an undrafted free agent signing by the Saints. He played 10 snaps in the team’s first preseason game.
Saints defensive lineman Cameron Jordan has been in New Orleans a long time. He was their first-round pick in 2011 and has been with them since, playing in 209 regular-season games and 11 postseason games with the team. Only Drew Brees has played more games for the Saints in franchise history.
But the Saints have missed the playoffs three straight seasons, and Jordan says that should let everyone know it’s time for a change.
“The name of the game is whatever we’ve been doing has not been enough, so we have to be able to do more. If you’re not willing to embrace that, beat it,” Jordan said, via the Saints’ website.
For Jordan, doing more meant losing 14 pounds this offseason, going from 290 at the end of last season to 276 now.
“I slimmed down for me,” he said. “At some point, I feel like I faced mortality last year with the injury. I was like, let’s be the best version of me and so I came in how I came in. Conditioning has never been an issue for me, being able to play 17 games hasn’t been an issue and so now I just want to be the best version of me. So, whatever that takes. It’s a season of more. Whatever it takes to give more.”
At age 35, Jordan doesn’t have many training camps left in his career. He’s putting his all into this one.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara missed Tuesday’s practice with back tightness, coach Dennis Allen said.
Allen said the injury isn’t considered serious.
Kamara did the pre-practice walkthrough before leaving the field as individual sessions began, Matthew Paras of nola.com reports.
“It’s just something he’s dealt with before, so I don’t anticipate it being a bigger deal,” Allen said.
Kamara wants a long-term contract from the Saints, but he reported to camp anyway and has been participating in practice.
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.
Wide receiver A.T. Perry left practice Tuesday with a sprained ankle, according to Paras.
The Saints made a couple of roster moves on Tuesday.
They have signed cornerback Kaleb Ford-Dement to the 90-man roster. They waived fullback Zander Horvath in a corresponding move.
Ford-Dement spent time with the Patriots after going undrafted earlier this year. He had 32 tackles, one sack, three tackles for loss, and three interceptions while playing for Texas State last season. He also played at Washington State, Old Dominion, and Kilgore College.
Horvath signed with the Saints in March. He appeared in 15 games for the Chargers during the 2022 season. Adam Prentice is now the only fullback on the roster in New Orleans.
Charlie Smyth, an Irish Gaelic football player who had never played American football but signed with the Saints this offseason, had quite a debut in the NFL.
Smyth made the game-winning 37-yard field goal with five seconds left in the Saints’ 16-14 win over the Cardinals in their preseason opener. Smyth said it is finally starting to sink in that he’s an NFL player.
“That’s when it starts to hit you, playing these big NFL teams,” Smyth told BBC Sport in Northern Ireland. “To imagine a year ago, when I’d never kicked a football before, to where I am now, there’s too many people to thank at this stage. I feel like the luckiest man alive right now. It’s unbelievable. To be out here and showcasing yourself on the stage that it is, in the world’s biggest league, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
The Saints’ other kicker, Blake Grupe, had handled the kicking throughout the game, but when it came down to a game-winning field goal attempt, Saints head coach Dennis Allen sent Smyth in to see how he would handle the pressure.
“You miss, you lose or you score and you win,” Smyth said. “For that to be my first kick, it was the stuff of dreams. You imagine those scenarios when you’re growing up, last minute of the game scoring a ’45' [a free kick in Gaelic football taken 45 meters from the goal]. If I missed that kick people would make assumptions, ‘he can’t handle the pressure’, but I just showed that I can and that’s why it felt so important.”
The first American football game of his life couldn’t have ended any better for Smyth. He’ll hope it earns him more opportunities, perhaps when the games count for real.
Tom Brady’s official debut with Fox comes on September 8, in Cleveland. On Sunday, he was working to develop his skills in L.A.
Brady and on-air partner Kevin Burkhardt used Sunday’s Cowboys-Rams preseason contest as a practice game.
They can be seen in the background of Jerry Jones talking about CeeDee Lamb, walking and talking while being filmed by Fox.
The next question is whether it will be Brady and Burkhardt on the call of Fox’s lone preseason game — Saints at 49ers on Sunday night — or whether Fox will keep Brady under wraps until Week 1.
The major networks typically assign their “A” teams to the one preseason game they televise. For example, ESPN/ABC used Joe Buck and Troy Aikman for the Hall of Fame game.
We’ve asked Fox P.R. whether Brady and Burkhardt will work the Saints-49ers game. They have not responded, yet. If it’s not Brady and Burkhardt, it could be Joe Davis and Greg Olsen — the Emmy-winning analyst who got bumped to the “B” team by Tommy.
Free-agent safety Justin Simmons may be getting closer to finding a new team.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Simmons is taking a visit with the Falcons on Monday and Tuesday.
Simmons, 30, has been on the open market since the Broncos released him in early March. He recently took a visit with the Saints.
A two-time Pro Bowler, Simmons has started 108 games since entering the league as a third-round pick in 2016. He led the league with six interceptions in 2022. He finished 2023 with 70 total tackles, eight passes defensed, three interceptions, and two forced fumbles.
Wide receiver Marquez Callaway’s return to the Saints has come to an end.
The Saints announced that they have released Callaway on Sunday. The wideout played 45 games for the team over the last four seasons before signing with the Steelers early this year. He was released in July and signed with the Saints on August 1, so it was a brief return to New Orleans.
Callaway had 83 catches for 1,069 yards and seven touchdowns for the Saints.
The Saints filled his roster spot by signing another former member of the roster. Wide receiver Shaquan Davis was on the practice squad and injured reserve in 2023 and spent the offseason with the Eagles.
