Saints training camp Day 12: A.T. Perry has best practice of the summer

ATTENDANCE: WR Mason Tipton (hamstring) and LB Willie Gay Jr. (unspecified) both left Wednesday’s practice early. And we did not spot G Shane Lemieux (unspecified). Meanwhile, QB Jake Haener returned following his skin cancer procedure on Monday. Other than that, the Saints’ injury list remained the same.

Nobody else returned to practice yet on Wednesday, despite the team having an off-day on Tuesday. However, we did see LBs Demario Davis (hamstring), LB Jaylan Ford (unspecified) and WR Equanimeous St. Brown (hamstring) working off to the side with trainers. Davis and Ford also watched the end of practice with their jerseys on. CB Marshon Lattimore (hip flexor) also watched the entire practice from the sidelines in street clothes.

Others who continued to miss practice Wednesday were: DBs Paulson Adebo (groin) and Ugo Amadi (groin); LB Pete Werner (shoulder); WRs Rashid Shaheed (hamstring) and Bub Means (shin); RB Kendre Miller (hamstring); G Nick Saldiveri (calf) and DE Trajan Jeffcoat (elbow).

CARR’S DAY: Derek Carr had another very efficient day.

He completed 8 of 9 attempts during the practice and highlighted it with two nice throws down the field, both to Cedrick Wilson Jr. The first deep pass was up the right sideline, and Wilson did a nice job of snatching the ball out of the air. On the next one, Wilson again went up the sideline, and Carr delivered a pass over Rejzohn Wright while Payton Turner closed in on him.

Wilson also had a very nice contested catch on a good throw from Carr in the 1-on-1 receiver/DB drills that took place inside the red zone Wednesday. Establishing a good connection with Wilson is potentially critical since he might be the team’s No. 3 receiver.

The offense also did some red-zone work in 11-on-11 drills, and while Carr completed two passes in the area, he didn’t throw a touchdown pass. Taysom Hill had a strong run during the session that might have gone for a score in a real game setting.

BACKUP BATTLE: Haener had a strong day, completing 7 of 10 passes. Spencer Rattler, working with the third-team offense, finished 3-of-6.

Haener had a good connection with A.T. Perry and hit him twice for two completions, including a touchdown during the red-zone period.

After carrying a heavy load during the last practice, Rattler didn’t get as much work as Haener. His best pass was in the red zone, when he hit Dallin Holker on an out route for a touchdown.

BEST DAY: Perry had his best practice of the summer. The wide receiver was recently challenged by the coaching staff to stand out and make more plays. While it might not have happened immediately, he responded today.

The wide receiver had two catches during team drills and was hard to miss during 7-on-7s, when he caught a pass from all three quarterbacks.

Perry is in a battle not just for one of the top three roles at wide receiver but also potentially his job. He needs standout moments, and he got one. Now, he needs more, especially with Wilson starting to heat up.

HEATING UP: Alvin Kamara was active throughout the practice. He caught four of Carr’s passes, including two in the red zone, and carried the ball several times. There’s never really any doubt that Kamara will fit in with a quarterback, but his role in the offense is starting to come into focus, and it looks like there will be more creativity than we’ve seen out of his role the past few years.

TAKING STOCK: Jordan Mims had a few standout plays today. The running back made good decisions in the run game and broke out for a few pretty good gains. It will be interesting to see how the Saints stack the depth chart when Miller returns from his injury. Everything we’ve seen to this point, even when Miller was active, suggests that Mims has been ahead for a good while.

Mims did some return work, and it looked like he had some issues with spotting the ball. He’ll need to find more consistency in that area moving forward.

ACCOUNTABILITY: The wide receivers did pushups after the offense lost during a the final period of practice. What was especially notable is that wide receiver coach Keith Williams joined in with the players and did pushups alongside them.

UP AND DOWN: Trevor Penning has had some good days at camp. None of them look disastrous overall, which is a starting point, but there is still work to be done.

The right tackle had one of his uneven days on Wednesday. During one team period that lasted nine plays, he surrendered two sacks (Carl Granderson, Turner) and a run stuff. He needs to even that out.

SLEEPER: Running back James Robinson has flashed pretty consistently throughout camp and had two good runs on back-to-back plays during practice.

The depth chart at running back is crowded, but Robinson is making his case.

DEMARIO UPDATE: Davis looks like he’s getting closer to getting back on the field, which is good, and the sooner it happens, the better. But he and Werner's being out of practice has created an opportunity to get a closer look at the other linebackers. Gay, D’Marco Jackson, and Anfernee Orji are all taking advantage and have been making plays pretty consistently in practice, which has those guys all running ahead of the pack heading into the first preseason game.

PUNTER BATTLE: Matthew Hayball has the leg and the talent to win the Saints punter competition. When he’s on, he looks really good. His situational punting looks to be on point, and he has a big leg. But there are some days where he battles inconsistencies and mishits some punts. There was one Wednesday that only hung for 3.56 seconds.

Lou Hedley has been a little more consistent – albeit not perfect -- from this point of view. The preseason games will be the big decider, but the Saints liked Hedley last year and he hasn’t done anything to lose his job. It’s up to someone to take it from him.

KICKERS REMAIN CLOSE: Both kickers took turns attempting field goals on the same day for the first time this camp – and they both had to deal with the windiest practice session yet. From the best we could tell, Blake Grupe appeared to go 5-of-6 with a miss from 37 yards wide left and Charlie Smyth appeared to go 6-of-7 with a miss from 44 yards wide right. Grupe’s longest attempt was from 52 yards, while Smyth’s long was from 54.

If those numbers are accurate, Grupe is now 47-of-55 in camp and Smyth 36-of-44. Exactly eight misses each, with more attempts from Grupe but some inconsistency from both.

WELCOME IN: Whenever the Saints sign a new defensive player, that guy has to go through the initiation that all the players go through at the start of camp: They owe 40 up-downs.

It’s a grueling exercise, and everyone wears out by the end of the count. On Wednesday, it was linebacker Mike Rose’s turn to get initiated into the defense. He knocked out all of his reps, but it was cool to see Gay join him for the last 15 or so reps as a means of encouragement.

When people talk about the energy that Gay brings to a team and why he’s a good culture guy, these are the moments why.

INSIDE 7-on-7s: Some notes from the session:

Carr went 3-of-5 including a throwaway. He also missed out on a deep opportunity to Kamara down the field when his low pass hit off Kamara’s hands. Haener went 3-of-4, airmailing an open Chris Olave on his first attempt. Rattler went 2-of-3. Perry had three of the eight catches in the session -- one from each QB.

Tight end Kevin Rader had the best catch of the session, holding onto a strike by Rattler while absorbing a collision with cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry.

INSIDE WR/DB 1-on-1s: Some notes from the session, which took place inside the red zone on Wednesday:

Perry made three very nice catches in the session, showing off his physicality to create separation. Two of those catches came against cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles. However, Jean-Charles had two of the best plays of the session himself – including the one that counted most against Perry on the final play. The offense and defense bet push-ups on the final snap, and Jean-Charles broke up the pass from Haener intended for Perry in the end zone, forcing all of the offensive players to drop down and pay their dues.

Other individual reps that earned stars in our notes included standout catches by Wilson, Samson Nacua, Marquez Callaway and Stanley Morgan Jr. and a PBU by cornerback Mac McCain against Wilson.

For better or worse, McKinstry was involved in the coverage on multiple contested catches throughout various sessions Wednesday. The plus, of course, is that he had tight coverage to begin with. On the apparent TD to Morgan in 1-on-1s, McKinstry fought for the ball all the way to the ground and actually came up with it after they wrestled for it.