IRVINE — With the first week of training camp in the books for the New Orleans Saints, six practices have concluded. Of those six practices, two have been padded. While this is still the early going of camp, there are a handful of players that have managed to stand out.
For the sake of variety, quarterbacks will be kept off of this list, but starting passer Derek Carr has looked comfortable in the new system. Meanwhile rookie Spencer Rattler, seond-year passer Jake Haener and veteran signal caller Nathan Peterman continue to battle it out behind him. The “QB2” battle was highly anticipated headed out to the west coast, but has not yet resulted in any passer behind Carr creating much separation.
Here are the players that have caught eyes consistently over the first calendar week:
RB Alvin Kamara
It can be easy to miss Kamara when he has good performances because no one expects anything less. But despite the already high expectations on the team’s star running back, he has managed to impress. He took a screen pass for a long catch and run on Tuesday’s padded practice while also adding a ruthless cutback that left a defender frozen on another play.
Kamara has show explosion and elusiveness this camp with standout moments seemingly each day. The only thing not seen from Kamara just yes is a big breakaway run play. But once that box gets checked, excitement around the rusher should be at its highest in some time this offseason.
LB Willie Gay
One of the exciting new additions to a strong defense, Gay has consistently made his presence felt. He has made big stops in the run game, covered well sideline to sideline and has even rushed the passer on occasion with success in creating pressure.
He was at one point covering Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill on an out route and managed the close the gap in trail technique to knock the ball away. He is fast and hard to miss on the field.
CB Kool-Aid McKinstry
The rookie cornerback has stood out in several ways. He shut down wide receiver A.T. Perry in one-on-one matchup drills. The drill had no ball thrown, but still allowed wideouts and corners to go head-to-head on a release from the line of scrimmage. McKinstry got his hands on Perry and effectively stonewalled him off the line.
That play strength has translated to the field in team drills, in which he is seeing a lot of first-team reps while starting cornerback Marshon Lattimore is out. He even made some great plays as a jammer on punt drills. He has shown his versatility and ability to imapct multiple areas of the game quickly.
DE Chase Young
Three snaps was all it took for Young to become everyone’s top story in camp so far. After spending some time in walkthroughs and some individual drills, he finally moved into team drills when the pads went on and impressed right away.
Young had two explosive pass rushing reps of the three he was given on Monday, then followed up with several big plays when he took the majority of first-team reps on Tuesday. He sniffed out an end-around to wide receiver Chris Olave, closed in on Carr on a bootleg and even chased Kamara down as he caught a checkdown over the middle and ran for extra yards.
DT Nathan Shepherd
Not a guy that a lot are going to talk about, but the defensive tackle is entering his second year in head coach Dennis Allen’s defense. That is exactly what it looks like, too. Shepherd is clearly comfortbale in his role and is now adding more to his game after getting the fundamentals of his role down during the 2023 season.
Shepherd has been disruptive in the run game and has also generated quite a bit of pressure on the quarterback when the coverage is holding up on the backend. If he and fellow defensive tackle Khalen Saunders take sizeable steps in 2024 after being more comfortable this year, that could go a long way for the Saints’ defense.