Saints RB Depth Behind Alvin Kamara? | New Orleans O-Line Rotation | Foster Moreau Stepping Up At TE

Saints RB Depth Behind Alvin Kamara? | New Orleans O-Line Rotation | Foster Moreau Stepping Up At TE

what up T-Bob here and Jake as well and look at you you done stumbled upon little OTB Saints where we bring you all the latest black and gold coverage who are the Saints going to draft who’s going to be their quarterback what does the salary cap look like all that information and more hope you’re enjoy it like subscribe joins us now Ross we appreciate the time as always hope you’re doing well this morning hey buddy doing great doing great thanks so much for having me on man always a pleasure to be here with you excited uh for my first question because we’re actually talking uh r backs now not excited with why we’re talking running backs but you know it’s a position that doesn’t get talked about a lot so we’ll start here uh with the New Orleans Saints Alvin chimra um looks like you know maybe could potentially hold out into training camp uh you know contract situation not looking great for either side right now what’s the latest you’re hearing with Alvin C maybe where he stands yeah biggest thing I mean there there’s probably not going to be much movement on this over the course of the next you know little bit of time this might be a thing that extends into uh into training camp just by virtue of when are people all in the same vicinity again yeah especially with training camp happening out in California that might literally be the next opportunity Alvin C has to sign a contract now of course they could certainly get things done during this break and stuff like that certainly make progress so that’s probably what you’re looking for right now is when do we get the update that there has been some progress made uh towards getting a deal done and things like that so it’s kind of what we’re going to be watching for here over the next little bit uh but this doesn’t seem like it’s as big a hurdle um as maybe it’s being uh made out to be outside of the facility I imagine inside the facility this one’s not entirely as challenging as maybe people expect you know so you look at it from a far Ross and you’re like okay AK 3.9 yards per carry had a ton of catches but not really uh a ton of yards to match those catches I think he averag a little bit over six yards per catch and so like some of the production has slipped but also like if you’re in ak’s Camp you can be like well the offense was stale I mean they were basically only going to run one running play they didn’t have you know a lot of diversity in the Run game the offensive line uh was not great as we know a year ago and so like new offensive lineman you draft one the first round you got a new offensive coordinator you’re thinking your production can get back up to maybe not where you know your Peak was but something somewhere in between like which one do you think the Saints are are looking at right now is it a declining running back because 30 is the graveyard age for running backs unfortunately like where does like his leverage I guess like where does that stand because he’s not coming off his best year yeah I think you’re trying to balance the two I mean look the fact of the matter is that Beyond you know the the 3.9 yards per carry you also had a guy who you know wasn’t able to gain more than 2.4 yards before being contacted because of the play of the offensive line in front of them or not necessar even because of the play of the offensive line in front of him because of where he was being asked to run I mean you go back to 2022 we’re talking about a guy that is a get him on the outside get him out in space kind of back and he only ran out of his 220 plus rushes 83 of them went to the outside you were outside Zone run that’s not the way that you were typically used to seeing Alvin C utilize you go back to last year it was the first time in three years that he’s had a negative uh air yards total um his average air yards per uh pass I came down to 01 minus 01 and he only had negative n air yards by the time that the season was done typically he’s in the 60 to 70 range there because they’re also targeting him downfield so it just kind of goes to show you like where the target distribution was what the Run distribution was and how that didn’t really complement his game so you have to balance that as an organization understanding hey we’re you know there’s a new offense coming in but at the same time you have to safeguard yourself from the decline right you don’t have to look at him as a deine asset right now but you do have to still Safeguard yourself for the two three years one or two years however it is that they want to look at it so I think that’s going to be the balance is not looking at him as a declining asset now but being aware that any running back in today’s NFL is going to be seen as a declining asset once they get past that 29 year of age so you kind of have to look at both of those things if you’re the organization but don’t have to treat him as a down commodity now Ross let’s you know hypothetical worst case scenario that you know AK is just like you know what I I’m not playing for that contract I feel like I’m more valuable than that I’m going to sit this thing out and maybe it lasts in a camp now I don’t think it’s going to happen doesn’t sound like you do either but let’s say it does like Kendra Miller going to be like would he be rb1 and then Williams would kind of be hey that that’ll be your change of pace guy and you know you’re going to have stuff with tesm ready to go but would it be kendre Miller rb1 we’re going to run the offense through him do you think that’s the way the Saints would approach that yeah I think so I mean in that scenario it’s where have to make a drastic decision like that I imagine to go to kendre Kendra’s got the the play style to be able to do it the biggest thing is can he stay he lead back for a full 17 games um I’ll throw Jordan Mims and and James Robinson into the mix too because you know the Saints would want to have a third guy in that rotation and both of those players are really really good fits for what Clint kubiak’s offense is trying to do the other thing that kind of works in the counter you know give Alvin CRA the extension argument um is that you know we’ve seen this wide zone system now Elevate non-m Marquee running backs in this league I know we’re watching it with Christian mcaffry right now but you know we’ve watched it with guys who were not household names and who became household names like Jeff Wilson you know what I mean and so like we’ve seen the system work for those guys Kiron Williams was another one from last year we saw out in Los Angeles and so you know being able to find these other guys like Jordan Mims and James Robinson these are important steps regardless like whether or not Alvin C is in your building uh even with Alvin in the building you got to have those guys ready on the practice squad so I I I put them in that conversation too to be able to add to that back field if the worst case scenario were to happen I mean it’s a great Point Ross I mean they ran I believe outside Zone 44% of the time last year in San Francisco as far as like their runs I mean they are an outside Z team and so I I assume that’s going to continue in New Orleans like you mentioned I mean you know branches of this offense in LA and other places that’s what they do as well and so like then it brings up your next question like you feel pretty good fuaga left side let’s run outside Zone what about over on the right side to Trevor Penning like how has he looked maybe has the narrative changed a little bit in a positive way for Trevor Penning what does he look like as we sit here at the end of June I think the narrative has changed in a positive way for him in that you’re not still watching him struggle to do the same thing there’s now sort of like this built-in kind of okay he needs more time because he’s learning a brand new position kind of Outlook so it’s kind of helpful um in terms of you know the criticism that might be showering down on Trevor Penning otherwise you were still playing left tackle and not you know not not fitting in and so I think there was a wise decision by the Saints it also helps to kind of equalize the offensive line everybody’s learning something new this year and I think that that helps to kind of equalize these guys uh quite a bit which is a good thing for Penning as well I I can’t say that he’s made you know major progress now that he’s over at right tackle that would be unfair of me to say because all that we’ve seen is OTAs in many camps where no one’s trying to have too much contact with anybody and all these other things so we’ll really find that out once the pads go on at training camp joint practices and then of course preseason as we get into the regular season so we’ll be able to get a real a much better sort of barometer on where he is in terms of his progress but I think that if he’s going to find progress this might be the way to get it done so I don’t think it was a the the wrong decision at all uh to make this move and it certainly sets up pinning for uh lesser expectations but maybe a greater potential of development learning something new while also having to learn something new when it comes to the game Talking New Orleans Saints with our guy Ross Jackson host of locked on Saints podcast all right let’s go to another position room the tight end room uh it actually like it felt like it was a real strength for you you had Jan Johnson you had falam Morrow and obviously you had Tamm Hill you had an undrafted free agent rookie that you felt pretty good about and then like one injury as we know in the NFL because the roster are different than they are in college football like it can make you sweat a little bit Joan Johnson he’s got a foot issue going to be out sometime so that moves Foster Morrow to be your tight end one so a room that you kind of felt good about now the depth is kind of being challenged right now where’s Jaan Johnson do you expect him back to be back for camp and if he’s not are you going to count on an undrafted free agent rookie that they seem high on to be able to fill in maybe as your tight end too yeah I I I think think that would be the case if if Jan Johnson’s not ready to go I’ve been given like a variety of different timelines um and and they all kind of fall towards the middle of training camp or so and so H it’s tough because even in that case you rejoin your team during training camp in the middle of it all and then you have a ramp up an acclamation period so that’s going to take a week or two everything like that so how much do you really get going so the the expectation has still been that he’ll that Joan Johnson will be ready to go week one but to what extent is going to be the question right how much time did he get to practice how’s he doing in terms of his conditioning how ises his acclamation hous his recovery so those are all going to be things that they’ll have to they’ll have to gauge to see just how involved he is at the beginning of the Season uh but if he’s not able to go yeah I think undrafted free agent uh D Hulker uh coming most recently out of Colorado state has been the guy that’s been the most impressive at the position outside of boso is actually like he looks like he’s bulked up quite a bit and has been making some really really nice catches throughout practice as well um and he’s the guy that I think you get on the field a lot more in Bost Morrow because he can play that true inline true wide type as a blocker and as a pass catcher you know that’s really important in terms of just simply being able to get out onto the field um and so I think that probably those two would be kind of your core tandem look guys like Michael Jacobson who was on the practice squad last year has had some impressive moments they just brought an ins sign jper horad who spent 2019 or excuse me 2020 and 20 21 um with Clancy Baron who’s now the tight ends coach here while he was in Chicago SP 2022 with Derek Carr with the Raiders so you know he’s got a lot of kind of connections with all these guys and so that could be a way that they go to to help supplement some additional maybe third tight end uh snaps if needed if Jan Johnson’s not ready to go but I think the bigger question for Joan is going to be when he does return can he keep the momentum up that he had at the end of last year 219 of his 368 receiving yards last year all came in the last four games of the season last season so can he keep that momentum going despite this injury which could cause a little bit of a hiccup in terms of carrying that production over shout out to my guy Clancy he was a tight end Coach in San Diego and Denver had him in a couple different spots uh great coach love having him down in New Orleans all right so falo a guy that if he has to play you know he’s got a great connection with the quarterback their Carr their time in uh in Oakland in Vegas and now here in New Orleans and let’s go ahead and get to the Derek Carr portion of the interview to wrap up here everyone seems to like what they’ve seen so far from him in the offseason now as you laid out you know ota’s mini camp that’s not the regular season that is not regular practice even because it’s a little bit more relaxed you have no threat of getting touched and Derek Carr is making the most of that but Ross obviously you know football incredibly well have you seen things that make you believe that when the bullets start to fly a little bit it does become live that he’s going to make those improvements yeah I’ll tell you the thing that gives me the most optimism or the most positivity when it comes to something like that was really the last two days of mini camps is you know Jake mini camp OT is you’re not making decisions but you’re Gathering a lot of information you’re learning a lot of stuff and so uh and that goes for the players as well as of course the coaching staff organization all that so it’s information gathering all around I think the thing that you really learned and that I really enjoyed seeing was um in the last two days the Saints did some situational one drive end of half end of game situation type drills uh 50 you know 58 seconds to get down the field at the end of the half to take a lead uh a minute 15 seconds at the end of a game to get down the field to score and you get a win or at least extend extend the lead and in both of those cases Derek Carr marched the the the team down the field to not get a field goal but score a touchdown and in one case get a two-point conversion to extend the lead to three in another score the touchdown and be able to get what would be a ulated win in that game situation and the reason why I highlight that is again it’s it’s mini camp it’s not the regular season but look if you can’t do that in mini camp there’s no reason to believe you’re gonna be able to do that uh in a game and then on top of that to be able to get in and out of the Huddle quickly cleanly no huddle hurry up situation uptempo situation with a brand new offensive play calling uh Rhythm a brand new offensive scheme and run it without issue then that really kind of gives you a little bit of a glimp a little bit of Glimpse and should give you some positivity in terms of how quickly this system seems to be setting in for that first team offense all right there is Ross Jackson Ross Jackson Nola is his handle on Twitter give a follow there catch him on locked on Saints podcast Ross you’re the man we appreciate your time as always enjoy the rest of your day wow just amazing black and gold takes right there Jake I don’t think I’ve ever heard any takes that are better than the two guys that just gave you that take and you can keep getting them by going ahead and liking subscribing ringing the Bell to get notifications when we post have a great day we’ll see you on the next OTB SA

On Off The Bench, Jacob Hester was joined by Ross Jackson to talk about the biggest concerns for the New Orleans Saints during the offseason.

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