Taysom Hill has never had a clearly defined position during his eight seasons with the Saints, and he won’t have one this year either.
Saints head coach Dennis Allen said the Saints expect Hill to remain a jack of all trades, and Allen made clear that quarterback remains one of the positions Hill will play.
“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 get some 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.”
Ultimately, Hill said, his role in the offense is a work in progress.
“I feel like I have a good idea but I still think that they’re figuring out what that is going to look like,” Hill said.
Hill turns 34 next month, but as a player he’s continuing to evolve.
Saints Clips
The Saints made a handful of roster moves on their offensive line Sunday.
They announced that they have signed guard Tremayne Anchrum and tackle Jesse Davis to their 90-man roster. Tackle Justin Herron was placed on injured reserve and offensive lineman Mark Evans II were waived in corresponding moves.
Anchrum spent the last four years with the Rams after being drafted in the seventh round in 2020. He appeared in 31 games and made one start during his time with the NFC West club.
Davis has made 72 starts at guard and tackle while playing for the Dolphins, Steelers, and 49ers. He played in one game for the 49ers last season.
Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore left practice with an injury Thursday.
Coach Dennis Allen said after practice that Lattimore injured his hip flexor, an injury Lattimore has dealt with previously, per John Sigler of USA Today. Lattimore also injured his hip flexor at the 2017 Scouting Combine.
Allen offered no details about the severity of Lattimore’s injury.
Lattimore has missed a lot of time the past two years, playing only seven games in 2022 because of a lacerated kidney and 10 games in 2023 because of a sprained ankle.
Rookie Kool-Aid McKinstry received first-team reps when Lattimore departed, with Alontae Taylor remaining in the slot. Paulson Adebo is the other starting outside corner.
Saints backup quarterback Jake Haener is participating in training camp but revealed today that he has skin cancer.
Haener addressed reporters with a small bandage on his face, and when asked about it he explained his diagnosis.
“I actually have a rare form of skin cancer,” Haener said. “For my age it’s kind of rare that it pops up like that, so I’m trying to get that evaluated with our training staff. I have a consultation with doctors August 1 on our off day to figure out how long I can wait, because I have to get a different procedure done on my face, so we’re trying to take the necessary steps to see how long I can wait to have that procedure done.”
Haener said he doesn’t expect to miss any time in training camp or the preseason but may need a procedure after the preseason.
“It’s something that just popped up, I was worried about it, my family was worried about it, it was just this random odd bump that kept growing,” he said. “I went to a dermatologist, they removed it, they did a biopsy on it, and came back last week, right before camp, that it was a rare form of skin cancer for my age, like I said. . . . Hopefully when we get back to New Orleans, after the preseason, I’ll be able to get that procedure done.”
Haener praised the Saints’ medical staff for its help and said he thinks he can continue to practice with no issues but will eventually need further treatment.
“I’m OK mentally,” Haener said. “It’s not going to be a life-threatening thing right now, but with these skin cancer things, if you wait, things spread, so I’ve got to get it taken care of.”
Haener and Spencer Rattler are competing to be the Saints’ No. 2 quarterback behind starter Derek Carr.
One of the most intriguing and connected figures in pro football in recent decades has died.
Via Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, former NFL executive and marketing agent Mike Ornstein died Thursday at his home in L.A.
Ornstein previously served as the NFL’s V.P. of marketing. He represented running back Reggie Bush in 2006, lining up multiple marketing deals as he entered the league as the second overall pick in the draft.
With tentacles throughout every layer and level of the league, Ornstein was a well-known mover and shaker. Sparked by his representation of Bush, Ornstein became closely tied to the Saints. As Duncan notes, he remained close with Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis and coach Dennis Allen.
In 2010, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for conspiring to scalp Super Bowl tickets and for selling fake game-worn jerseys.
While serving his term, Ornstein reportedly sent emails to Saints P.R. (with many others copied on it) promising $5,000 to Saints players who delivered hard hits to former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. The emails came to light during the league’s investigation of the Saints’ bounty scandal.
From Judy Battitsta’s May 3, 2012 article in the New York Times, Ornstein was “no ordinary outsider” but “much closer to an insider: a ubiquitous, gregarious and sometimes foul-mouthed figure well known in [NFL] circles, who is credited by friends and detractors with having an uncanny knack for gaining access and generating lucrative deals for his associates.”
His influence came from who he knew — and what he knew. For years, it was believed in league circles that Ornstein had the power to bring down a wide variety of powerful figures.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara said he reported to training camp Wednesday because he’s “not stupid.” He wasn’t about to lose $50,000 a day in fines.
But Kamara wasn’t present simply to have a “hold-in” as he fully participated in the first practice.
While Kamara wants a new contract, he also wants to finish his career with the Saints.
“I want to be a Saint; I want to retire here,” Kamara said, via Luke Johnson of nola.com. “If I’ve got to play football somewhere else, I’ll probably be somewhere with my feet kicked up in Africa somewhere. I want to be a Saint.
“I’m not asking for nothing crazy where it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t do that.’ That’s my perception of it. Whatever the perception of it is upstairs [in the front office] with whoever makes those decisions is obviously different than what my perception of it is. So, you know, we just carry on. I’ve got to do what I do and I’ll focus on what I’ve got to do.”
The sides have made no significant progress on an extension, per Kamara.
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.
He expected the Saints to restructure his deal, like they did in 2022 and 2023, and he skipped the final practice of minicamp to show his displeasure with the pace of talks.
“There was other talks about other things that I’m not going to get into, but I guess there were some feelings that I didn’t do something that they wanted me to do, and we’re here now,” Kamara said. “So, it ain’t really been too many conversations.”
Kamara’s future is in doubt, but his immediate future is in his hands, and he feels good about where he is.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara reported to training camp on Tuesday and he explained his reasons for reporting in a Wednesday press conference.
Kamara walked out of the team’s mandatory minicamp in June because he was not making any progress toward a new contract and he said on Wednesday that there haven’t been too many “really meaningful” conversations with the team about a new deal. Kamara is signed through 2025, but has no guaranteed money left on his deal and the Saints would see significant cap savings by parting ways with him.
Since he’s under contract, Kamara would be subject to fines for skipping training camp and he referenced that when discussing his decision to show up.
“I ain’t stupid,” Kamara said. “I ain’t going to give the money up. I’m trying to get some money. . . . I’d be a fool to spite my teammates because of a dispute I’m having with upstairs. I wouldn’t even call it a dispute, we’re having conversations.”
Kamara said he plans on practicing and playing even if there’s “no commitment to years after,” so it looks like uncertainty will remain part of Kamara’s future for some time.
The Saints put an end to right tackle Ryan Ramczyk’s 2024 season last week, but head coach Dennis Allen isn’t ruling anything out for 2025.
Ramcyzk has been dealing with knee injuries for an extended period of time and that led to chatter about retirement this offseason. That feeling only grew when the Saints put him on the season-ending version of the physically unable to perform list ahead of training camp, but Allen said on Tuesday that no decisions have been made beyond that one.
“We’re going to leave all options open,” Allen said, via Luke Johnson of NOLA.com. “I don’t think anything past this season is off the table.”
Ramcyzk has started all 108 regular season and playoff games he’s played since the Saints drafted him in the first round in 2017. The Saints will move forward in 2024 with Trevor Penning and first-round pick Taliese Fuaga at tackle.
The Saints will get to see defensive end Chase Young on the field Wednesday.
Coach Dennis Allen said Tuesday that Young will participate “in some form of practice” when training camp opens. Young spent the offseason recovering from neck surgery.
Young, 25, signed a one-year, $13 million deal with the Saints on March 18, a day before it was revealed he needed the surgery.
The Saints insist they knew about the surgery before signing Young, and they expect him to be ready for the start of the regular season. But they tied more than half his salary to per-game active roster bonuses.
The Commanders drafted Young in 2020 and traded him to the 49ers last season in exchange for a 2024 third-round pick. He has never had more than 7.5 sacks and has 16.5 in his four-year career.
Young’s only Pro Bowl came during his rookie season when he was defensive rookie of the year.
He had only a lukewarm free agent market this offseason, which seems to have motivated him.
“It’s been very positive,” General Manager Mickey Loomis said, via Luke Johnson of nola.com. “I’ve been impressed with how hard he’s working to get his rehab done, his attitude about being on this team and having a chip on his shoulder. I feel like this is a player that feels like he has something to prove, and oftentimes when you’re that high of a draft pick, that’s hard to recapture.”
The Saints will be deliberate in Young’s return, with Loomis saying the team is “not going to rush” him.
Allen expects defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon (Achilles), linebacker Nephi Sewell (ACL) and tight end Juwan Johnson (foot), all of whom are on the active/PUP list to participate in the team’s first training camp practice. Receiver Chris Olave (back), whom the team placed on the non-football injury list last week, also will get some work.
The Saints have hired former Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler as a personnel advisor, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports.
In March, it was reported that Ziegler was working with the Saints in an advisory role and was expected to remain with the team through the draft. But Ziegler now will stay with the Saints going forward.
The Raiders hired him as G.M. in January 2022 after he served in the Patriots’ personnel department for nine years. He went to Las Vegas to work with head coach Josh McDaniels, who was offensive coordinator in New England.
McDaniels and Ziegler were fired Oct. 31, 2023 after going 9-16.
Ziegler worked with the Broncos from 2010-12.
He joins General Manager Mickey Loomis and assistant General Managers Jeff Ireland and Khai Harley in the front office in scouting personnel.
