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By Mike Detillier Sports Correspondent | Houma Courier

I hope we will get to see college and pro football in the fall.

One major area to watch this season with both LSU and the New Orleans Saints will be starting with the critical center position.

Other than quarterback, the center spot is the hardest for any player to excel at in both college and pro football.

At center, you are the quarterback of the offensive line. You make the alignment calls and you have to pick up the delayed inside blitzes you see so much today in the game.

With a new quarterback, you sometimes have to calm him down.

And you have to make sure you get the ball back in the exchange either under center or in the shot-gun/pistol formation back to the quarterback as close to 100 percent of the time as you can get it.

I spoke to former New Orleans Saints center Steve Korte, who never played center until he was selected by the Saints, about the responsibilities of playing center and the mental part of the game.

“When I was in high school in Colorado I played some offensive line and defensive tackle,” Korte said. “So I sign on with Arkansas and I’m a back-up defensive tackle to Dan Hampton. He’s a Hall of Fame defensive tackle, so my future is at guard. I got to be pretty good at it and I was a consensus All-American offensive guard in 1982. The Saints pick me in Round 2 in 1983 and after a couple of days of practice they decided to move me to the center position. I had practiced a little the center spot at one of these Regional Combines, but never in a game. It was quite an adjustment for me.”

Full Story - houmatoday.com

Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

By Bob Rose - Sports Illustrated

The New Orleans Saints have several enormous contract decisions to make over the next two years. Pro Bowl CB Marshon Lattimore and All-Pro offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk had their fifth-year contract options picked up by the team, but are still scheduled to be unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2021 season unless extended. At the end of this coming season, New Orleans must deal with expiring contracts of key players like TE Jared Cook, DT Sheldon Rankins, LB Alex Anzalone, LB Kiko Alonso, FS Marcus Williams, DB P.J. Williams, RB Alvin Kamara, LB Demario Davis, along with finding a new quarterback after the expected retirement of Drew Brees.

The team's front office has done a masterful job at juggling the financials of the salary cap to keep one of the NFL's best teams intact, but keeping all of those players and the contracts they will command will be difficult. Most expect the Saints to make the biggest push to re-sign Kamara, who is perhaps the league's most versatile back and likely to pull in an average of close to $15 million dollars per year with his next deal. Kamara has rare abilities and has been a vital part of the Saints offensive success since joining them as a 3rd round pick in 2017. Re-signing a player with elite talents as his should be a priority, but the thought here is that the next top contract priority for New Orleans should be on the other side of the ball. ...

By Brian Allee Walsh | Sun Herald

However you slice Patrick Mahomes’ blockbuster deal, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is going to make a boatload of money over the next 12 seasons, upwards of $500 million by all accounts.

Call it the NFL’s version of a stimulus check in this pandemic strapped world.

And to think only eight short years ago, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees signed a five-year, $100 million deal that made him the highest-paid quarterback on average in NFL history at the time.

How times have changed!

Brees’ deal included $60 million in guarantees, including a $37 million signing bonus. He celebrated the historic occasion by lunching at one of his Jimmy John’s sandwich shoppes — extra mayo on the Ultimate Porker.

Brees’ deal came on the eve of training camp in July 2012 and capped a tumultuous offseason, months after the league handed down unprecedented franchise-wide sanctions in the wake of Bountygate that included the season-long suspension of coach Sean Payton. ...

Full Story - The Sun Herald

Dan Roushar. Photo - Michael C. Hebert - New Orleans Saints

NewOrleansSaints.com

Roushar is entering his eighth season with Saints

Dan Roushar is entering his eighth season with the New Orleans Saints, and fifth as offensive line coach. During his tenure, tackles Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk were named All-Pros and interior linemen Andrus Peat (left guard), Larry Warford (right guard) and Max Unger (center) were selected for the Pro Bowl. And this year, he'll help mold two promising young linemen – second-year center/guard Erik McCoy and rookie center/guard Cesar Ruiz. The Saints' offensive line consistently has been among the league's best, and Roushar wants to make sure it remains in the upper echelon of NFL units.

Q: How significant has the adjustment been to not seeing players, not having an offseason program?

Roushar: It's certainly been a challenge, but I think it's been a welcome challenge, with the idea that we've been restricted in our ability to be in-person contact with the players. Each morning for the last three weeks, we've had what we're considering virtual meetings, and we've really involved the young players and the guys that are new to the program. And we spend about an hour-and-a-half each morning with them going through the installations. And as we teach them the system and go through things, we have film to back up what we're talking about. It's really become kind of an interesting process. Because of our lack of ability to put them on the field and go through things, it's been a lot more communication back and forth, many, many more questions as we've...