Saints rookie minicamp notes and observations: Tyler Shough makes strong first impression

Notes and observations from Saturday's rookie minicamp.

OVERVIEW: The Saints only did a few periods of 7-on-7 drills, with most of the practice more geared toward group work or the offense working with the offense and the defense working with the defense. One thing that did stand out was the pace of the practice and how much attention to detail was on display. This might sound like a goofy thing, but the stretching and warm-up period really stood out. There was just more to it.

This was also the first time that we’ve seen the coaching staff work together. Everything looked and seemed organized, and everyone said afterward that the group is building quick chemistry. And for those that have worked together, things felt natural.

“It’s been great. This thing feels like a desk job the first few months, just all of the off-field stuff that you’re kind of navigating as you go through the draft process, building a roster, building a staff,” Kellen Moore said. “We all love being out there with the players, helping these guys become the best version of themselves. It was a lot of fun.”

Doug Nussmeier had the quarterbacks navigate through a group of training dummies and then told them which colored target to throw at in the nets. There was a drill later that had them working near the goal line, and the quarterback had to roll out to the left and navigate several stepover pads and time the end zone throw.

Very small sample size, but seeing a lot of read-option work from the quarterbacks with a lot of movement from them is encouraging. Moore had Tyler Shough and Hunter Dekkers rolling on both sides and had to make throws across the opposite side of their bodies. Dekkers is left-handed, for those interested.

Also good to see new coaches aren’t wasting much time with getting involved in the process, as Bo Davis (defensive line) and Peter Sirmon (linebackers) were helping facilitate drills with Keith Williams (wide receivers) when they were rotating a group of pass catchers, defensive backs and defensive linemen/linebackers.

ATTENDANCE: Fourth-round draft pick Quincy Riley and undrafted punter James Burnip were the only players who didn’t participate in Saturday’s practice – but both were present and observing throughout the session.

Moore didn’t specify Riley’s injury, but he said he had a “procedure” on a pre-existing issue that would “allow him to get ahead of it.” Moore twice suggested it was minor or a “little medical thing.” He said it wasn’t related to Riley’s college ankle injury.

As for Burnip, he has to get his paperwork in order before he can work here. There are visa issues with international players that have to be handled before they can make money.

QB1?: We’re starting with the QB because you always start with the QB. I’m not sure there are huge impressions to make on a limited first impression, but … I liked what I saw from Tyler Shough.

Let’s start with the obvious: He looks the part. The Saints haven’t had a lot of tall quarterbacks who look like prototype players. Tyler Shough is a tall quarterback who looks like he was made to play quarterback.

But what stands out more than that are his movement skills. The Saints finished the practice drilling RPOs and bootlegs, and Shough really looked natural during those sessions. He looked his best, though, when the team had the quarterbacks doing a drill where they stepped over the pads and then fired a pass to the corner of the end zone. During that portion of practice, Shough’s ability to throw from different arm angles and on the move really separated him from Hunter Dekkers, who was at practice trying out.

Shough only got eight reps during during 7-on-7 drills. He completed seven of his passes, his one miss being a crosser over the middle to tight end Moliki Matavao that got broken up by tryout player Terrell Burgess. Shough’s best pass came when he dropped a pass to Roderick Daniels between coverage from two defensive backs for a long gain.

The defense played a two-safety shell that kept most of the passes in the short and intermediate areas of the field, but Shough did a good job of taking what the defense gave him.

BANKS AROUND: The Saints were moving Kelvin Banks around to various spots on the offensive line, and he spent significant time rotating from left tackle to left guard to right tackle, with some snaps at right guard toward the end. Kellen Moore said after practice that he plans to use Banks at every spot and figure out how the pieces all fit together to give the Saints their best five players on the offensive line.

Banks told us that he has no issue playing any of the spots and has no ego about it. He just wants to play and doesn’t care which spot. He did say that he’s never played guard and that he expects things to happen a lot faster on the inside if he ends up in that spot.

DEFENSIVE STRUCTURE: The defensive structure is certainly different than it used to be, and watching it even during a skeleton drill is different. There’s an edge player out there at one of the linebacker spots, which just looks different.

The coverage is what we expected. It looked like two-safety looks with pattern matching — meaning that the players play man unless someone breaks inside. So, everything as advertised so far.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS: Looks like the players will have their names on the back of their practice jerseys. The veterans had their names on theirs, the rookies did not. That’s a change from previous staffs. … Vernon Broughton moves well and is built as advertised. Bo Davis joked again after practice about his chicken legs. … Marcus Yarns, the undrafted running back, showed really nice movement skills when he turned a short pass and ran it up field. … Josh Hill, yes, former tight end Josh Hill, who helps with scouting, was out there helping with drills. He seems to be doing a little bit of everything these days.