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Cornerback Tracy Porter made his debut within hours of signing his four-year contract with the Saints. He lined up with both the second and third teams at different points and looked pretty comfortable out there. His best play came late in the afternoon when he broke up a pass that was intended for receiver Todd Blythe.
“It is a happy time for me because you never want to be away from your team,” Porter said afterward. “You want to develop chemistry with your teammates and learn the playbook.”
Porter’s deal is worth about $4.2 million, according to league sources.
- The Saints’ offense got off to an ugly start this afternoon. Center Jonathan Goodwin and quarterback Drew Brees botched the exchange on a snap during the walk-through period. Then Brees had two passes intercepted by backup linebacker Marvin Mitchell – one of which bounced off the hands of tight end Jeremy Shockey.
Shockey dropped two passes during that drill. Later in passing drills, Reggie Bush dropped two balls. And tailback Pierre Thomas topped them all by falling on his face during agility drills when he was trying to high-step over a series of large pads.
Eventually, the offense got its act together. But this was the first sign of the fatigue that’s sure to set in over the course of these two-a-day sessions.
- Brees ended his day on a high note. The final two plays of the day were a deep completion to receiver Lance Moore and a nice tight spiral to tight end Mark Campbell. … Cornerback Jason David got burned badly on the pass to Moore – a disappointing finish to an otherwise-impressive day for David.
- The two biggest plays of the day came back to back late in Friday’s afternoon practice. Safety Chris Reis made a terrific interception on a pass thrown by quarterback Mark Brunell. The ball bounced off receiver Adrian Arrington’s hands, then Reis kept it alive by batting it in the air before pulling it in.
On the very next play, though, Brunell hit Arrington deep down the field. Arrington beat cornerback Jason Craft for a gain of about 40 yards.
- Defensive end Will Smith had his best practice to date this afternoon. He was repeatedly bursting into the backfield and getting pressure on Drew Brees. He beat second-year tackle Jermon Bushrod on at least two of the plays. Later, he also got in the way of tailback Reggie Bush to snuff out a run play.
- We got our first glimpse at the tantalizing kicker battle this afternoon. Martin Gramatica each got two attempts from 35 yards and one from 40 yards. Gramatica missed his 40-yarder wide left – a bit of a knuckle ball. Mehlhaff appeared to go 3-for-3, but he had a distinct hook on each of his kicks, and we were watching from across the field, so I’m not 100 percent positive on the last one.”
Read More @ http://blog.nola.com/saintsbeat/2008/07/new_orleans_saints_practice_re_1.html
*this post is for testing purposes*
