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By Drew Crabtree | Last Word On Sports

NFC South projections in July? Okay, it may be way too early to begin thinking about the NFL season, but who else can’t wait until fall? In this way-too-early series, I will give my take on each of the NFL divisions and how I believe they will shape up. The NFC South is home to a team that blew a 28-3 in the Super Bowl and a team that was a miracle and a blown-call away from potential back-to-back Super Bowls. Who will end up on top?

Way-Too-Early NFC South Projections

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-13) (2-4)

Wins: Carolina Panthers (week 6), Arizona Cardinals (week 10), Atlanta Falcons (week 17)

Losses: San Francisco 49ers (week 1), at Carolina Panthers (week 2), New York Giants (week 3), at Los Angeles Rams (week 4), at...

By Sean Fazende | FOX 8

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - With every training camp comes new competition at each position. Some battles are obvious, while others develop over the duration of practice.

We’ve pinpointed the six biggest battles as the entire Saints team get set to report this week:

Center

Erik McCoy, Nick Easton, and Cameron Tom

Center is the only true first-team position where the starter is completely unknown. With Max Unger retired, a new player will be inserted into the center of the offensive line. In this offense, many consider it the most important position on that unit. Nick Easton, Erik McCoy and Cameron Tom all received first team reps during OTA’s and minicamp. Each have their strong suits: Easton has versatility, Tom has been in the system and steadily improved, McCoy is a second round pick with probably the most talent of the three. But in this battle, the pads will determine the winner.

Full Story - FOX 8

How much improvement will the last line of defense show this season after inconsistencies in 2018?

By Bob Rose | Canal Street Chronicles

The New Orleans Saints finished just 29th in the league against the pass in 2018. Much of that was due to major struggles in the team's secondary, which was torched often over the first month of the season in particular. The Saints cornerbacks played better as the season went along, particularly after a midseason trade with the New York Giants to acquire Eli Apple. While Apple and last year's Defensive Rookie of the Year Marshon Lattimore were a talented duo at corner, the Saints safety position struggled for most of the year. The free agent signing of veteran safety Kurt Coleman was an abysmal failure, and the position as a whole gave up too many big plays. Today's training camp preview has a look at the Saints most inconsistent defensive position from a year ago.

SAFETY

Offseason losses:

Kurt Coleman

Offseason additions:...

By Mike Detillier / Sports Correspondent

The New Orleans Saints are starting the training camp practices in the next few days and here are a few things to keep an eye on as we are getting ready to kickoff the 2019 football campaign.

DEVELOPING THE YOUNG RECEIVING UNIT

Michael Thomas was marvelous last season catching 125 passes for 1,405 yards and nine touchdowns, but the next best wide receiver number wise was Tre’Quan Smith, who caught 28 passes for 427 yards and five scores.

Teams at the end of the 2018 season double-teamed Thomas and Alvin Kamara and forced the other receiving options to get open downfield.

The Saints have combated that sort of coverage scheme due to adding a very talented pass-catching tight end in Jared Cook, who is a perfect fit for the Saints offense, but this team needs to develop a young receiving unit.

Healthy, the Saints know what they will get out of the speedy Ted Ginn, Jr., but he’s 34 years old and like all players, if an injury occurs it takes a little longer to get back in the lineup.

The Saints coaching staff saw glimpses and are still very high on the receiving skills of Smith and Keith Kirkwood, but what they want to see from both is more improvement in their consistency to get open and further developing their ability to gain separation downfield. Both players...

By Herbie Teope | The Advocate / Picayune

The early-summer pageantry of Saints players practicing in shorts and no pads during organized team activities and mandatory minicamp is in the rear-view mirror.

Now, it’s time to temper past enthusiasm on who looked good wearing shells in no-contact drills throughout the install phase of the offseason workout program.

The true assessment period during the march to the regular season begins in less than a week on July 26 when the Saints kick off training camp, where players have a total of 15 padded practices to show the Saints coaching staff what they learned from OTAs.

“Every year since I’ve been here, there’s something about the pads that defined certain players that had it not been for the pads, then you might not have seen their talents,” coach Sean Payton said during last month’s mandatory minicamp. “So, we’re slow to evaluate that way, but quick to evaluate if someone has trouble or can’t learn.”

Full Story - NOLA.com

By John Sigler | Saints Wire

The New Orleans Saints are wrapping up their final preparations before meeting for their 2019 training camp, which has its first practice on Friday.

However, not all players will start off on equal footing. Some of them were slowed down by injuries earlier in the summer and their conditions could continue to linger. Others are on a longer, more-established time table after undergoing offseason surgery. Whatever the case, these seven Saints players will likely be nursing some sort of ailment when the team kicks off training camp.

Sheldon Rankins

There haven’t been any reported setbacks since Rankins tore his Achilles tendon in the playoffs, so he’s on track to return in mid-October after a successful rehab and a few weeks of practice. There should be some kind of an update once training camp begins, but it’s unlikely he’ll be ready for the season-opener.

Full Story - Monroe News-Star- USA Today

By Dean Mullen | Last Word On Sports

Almost a year ago, Teddy Bridgewater came to the city of New Orleans to back up Drew Brees. Surely, he envisioned sitting behind Brees for a year to get an education one can’t buy at Tulane or Loyola. No, the education under a future Hall of Fame is a course you can’t buy pre-packaged. The Drew Brees class hasn’t yet been patented as of yet. But make no mistake, the value is priceless. Bridgewater’s only game-time experience came in the last game of the season against the Carolina Panthers when nothing was on the line.

Teddy Bridgewater Accepts Apprentice Role in 2019

The Return of Teddy Bridgewater

Bridgewater finished 14 of 22 for 188 yards including one touchdown and an interception with mostly backups throughout the game. Regardless, the New Orleans...

We’ve talked about how tough September looks for the Saints based on their opponents’ 2018 win, loss records. But there is a silver lining for the defense and now the calendar reads Sacktember.

By Roy Anderson | WhoDatDish

When schedules first came out for the 2019 Season, September looked like a gauntlet of doom for the Saints. The easiest game on the September slate looks to be the season opener on Monday Night Football in the Superdome against the AFC South-winning Houston Texans (11-5).

It just gets harder from there. Up next is a two-week stretch on the West Coast. First date is with the NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams (13-3) in an afternoon game in LA. The Saints won’t even bother coming home, spending the week in Seattle in preparation for Week 3’s contest with the Seattle Seahawks (10-6) who finished last year second in the NFC West.

The month wraps with a Sunday Night Football grudge match against the NFC East Champion Dallas Cowboys (10-6) in the Superdome. The good news is that the schedule gets considerably easier after that...

Seven dates still open

By Don Ames | WWL 870 AM

The New Orleans Saints announced Saturday that the following practices are sold out for the Saints 2019 Training Camp Presented by Verizon:

- Friday, July 26

- Saturday, July 27

- Sunday, July 28

- Saturday, August 3

- Saturday, August 10

Full Story - WWL

By James Parks | 247 Sports

The New Orleans Saints have a strong core of contributors on both sides of the football and on special teams on what is among the most talented rosters in their franchise history.

But with all that talent comes some pretty considerable investments.

In recent years, the organization has made some important moves, in particular building up their defensive front seven and their offensive line, both of which among the best in football.

Next offseason, the Saints will look to make some more commitments, especially to wide receiver Michael Thomas, who will use his record-breaking outings with the team to put his name to a long term contract extension that could be worth up to $100 million, judging by the market at the position.

In the future, the team will also be orchestrating new contracts with the likes of running back Alvin Kamara, offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, and cornerback Marshon Lattimore, among others.

Full Story - 247 Sports

By Herbie Teope | The Advocate / Picayune

One former Saints safety replaces another in Buffalo.

Kurt Coleman, who started nine games in New Orleans in 2018, signed a one-year deal with the Bills, the team announced Friday morning.

Coleman’s signing comes on the heels of Rafael Bush electing to retire after nine professional seasons. Bush had two stints with the Saints from 2012-15 and 2017.

Full Story - NOLA.com

By Steve Geller | WWL 870AM

Horrifying images from the NFC championship were seared into our memory after the Rams got a little help from the refs to beat the Saints to advance to the Super Bowl. But, now is really the time to move on and focus on 2019 since the first practice of training camp is Friday, July 26th.

This year’s Black & Gold squad is expected to be right back where they were a year ago. They finished last season 13-3 and were the #1 seed in the NFC playoffs. A super talented roster remains intact and while everyone wants to talk about Drew Brees being a “40-year-old quarterback”, he has shown no signs of a decline in production and continues to shatter NFL records. You don’t have to worry about #9 heading into camp, but here are 5 guys that do have question marks around them:

Center Erik McCoy

Will the 2nd round draft pick be the Saints starting center week 1? The consistent and reliable Max Unger retired at the end of last season which leaves a massive hole up front. Putting that responsibility on a rookie could be too much to handle, but he’s got a pretty good support system around him with Terron Armstead, Larry Warford, Ryan Ramczyk and Andrus Peat on the o-line. Of course, McCoy won’t just be given the job, he will be competing against Cameron Tom and...