Saints training camp Day 6: Chase Young dominates; new wrinkles on defensive line

Notes and observations from Day 6 of training camp.

DRESS CODE: Pads

ATTENDANCE: Kendre Miller (hamstring) was seen on the field in sweats prior to practice while Zander Horvath (personal), Bryan Bresee (foot), Marshon Lattimore (hip flexor), Nick Saldiveri (calf), Equanimeous St. Brown and Trajan Jeffcoat (elbow) were not seen at practice.

Receiver Chris Olave left practice early with a hip injury after he landed on the hip.

INTERIOR CHANGES: The Saints worked on their third-down packages, which allowed for a closer look at the team’s pass defense.

New Orleans worked a bunch of different players inside, but most notably Cam Jordan and Payton Turner got snaps there. Carl Granderson and Chase Young were typically the edge rushers when Jordan moved inside. The Saints typically move an edge rusher inside on passing downs, though it hasn’t typically been Jordan.

Jordan has typically played on the edge and stayed there. He only logged 16 interior snaps last year and hasn’t topped 25 in a season since 2015.

This could just be something tried out in a random practice and we never really see it become a real part of the plan. But for at least one day, New Orleans was totally committed to it. During one-on-one rush drills, Jordan even took his reps against the interior offensive linemen.

DOMINANT PERFORMANCE: It wouldn’t be overstating to say that Young had the most dominant performance by a defensive player this training camp. And even if there are other contenders for that title, they weren’t as loud as Young’s day.

Young simply looks different than the rest of the defensive players, and you quickly see why he was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft. His traits stand out and he’s a freak athlete. And when he’s on, he’s overwhelming.

Young had a two-play stretch where you really saw it. Coming off the offensive left edge, he sacked Derek Carr following a play-action fake. Then on the next play, he was immediately in the backfield and blew up a reverse to Olave behind the line of scrimmage.

Then you watch him during one-on-ones and it’s the same thing. He went up against Taliese Fuaga twice and won both times. He was seconds away from taking the final rep of the drill against Trevor Penning, but the whistle blew before they could get the rep in.

STRUGGLES FOR PASS OFFENSE: The Saints pass defense clearly won the day. Carr completed 6 of 7 passes during team drills, but he was typically checking down and there wasn’t much open down the field.

A lot of that was due to a plus pass rush. Young played his part, and Turner also got a sack on an interior rush. The coverage was also good down the field, as there was at least one coverage sack on Carr.

The only thing that really seemed to get going for the passing offense was the screen game. Alvin Kamara caught one designed screen that went for a long gain, and had another nice run after catch on a checkdown.

The second-unit offense, led by Spencer Rattler, didn’t fare much better. He couldn’t get much going and got sacked twice. One of them came when Turner ran him out of the backfield into D’Marco Jackson. The other one was a sack by Isaiah Foskey. Rattler also was forced to tuck and run once.

BUT RUN GAME SOLID: Things got pretty physical during a run session, and the offense actually looked like it had an upper hand. Kamara had multiple long runs, going to both sides of the field, and Jordan Mims also stood out. Mims has great vision and patience, and it’s continuing to look like he might make the team.

James Robinson had an awesome stiff arm on Shemar Jean-Charles during team drills up the sideline.

There were some defensive standouts, though. On one back-to-back sequences, Granderson blew up a reverse to Rashid Shaheed with a physical play, and Young dropped Jamaal Williams in the backfield.

INSIDE ONE-ON-ONES: We got our first look at one-on-one pass-rush drills in pads on Tuesday. Here were a few things that stood out:

Young is a beast. He won both of his reps against Fuaga. On one, it didn’t look like he even got checked.

Fuaga didn’t get smoked, but Young clearly had an upper hand. The rookie won another rep later on against Niko Lalos.

Granderson beat Penning pretty good the first time they paired up. Penning won the second one.

Cesar Ruiz looked like he won both his turns against Jordan, though one might have featured some holding.

Erik McCoy competed strong against Khalen Saunders.

Looked like a few tough reps for Isaiah Foskey. You'd like to see more.

LAST GUY OUT: Alontae Taylor has typically been the last guy off the field after practice. He stayed out late on Tuesday working on his footwork.

NOTES: Rattler had a great throw to Mason Tipton during 7-on-7s. ... Lucas Patrick was the starting left guard with Saldiveri out. … Taysom Hill ran an end-around. Might be the first time we’ve seen that. … Turner and Dallin Holker were involved in a little tussle. … Charlie Smyth hit his first six field goals but then was significantly short from 61 and then wide from a second attempt from 61. … Sincere Haynesworth was at center on a fumbled exchange between him and Haener in 11-on-11. … Tipton was typically on the field with the third-team offense but rotated in for some work with the 1s and 2s. … Jean-Charles gave up a deep pass to Rashid Shaheed in 7-on-7 drills.