How Adam Trautman's Senior Bowl performance sparked Saints' infatuation with rookie tight

quote:

---

The Dayton helmet may have looked out of place, but the big tight end didn’t. He kept making plays against players from the big-name football factories, and the Saints made sure to follow Adam Trautman closely.

“It was like, ‘Hey, there he is making another play there, there he is making another play,’ ” said Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael.

---

quote:

---

Mobile is where Saints tight ends coach Dan Campbell started to really get excited about Trautman’s pro potential, the way in the span of a week they saw him grow and develop against high-caliber competition impressed him.

After seeing him in Mobile, Campbell took a close look at Trautman’s college film and validated his idea of who the player was.

---

quote:

---

Though Trautman enjoyed a monster senior season at Dayton — 70 catches, 916 yards and 14 touchdowns — New Orleans didn’t bring him in just to catch the ball. Though some of Trautman’s blocking technique was fundamentally raw, Campbell said, he was enamored by Trautman “throwing his body in there and he's doing whatever he can to finish blocks.” The fancy part of the game stands out on the stat sheet, but Campbell loved the grittier side of Trautman’s game.

---

quote:

---

Others in the organization have said they see Trautman as a true “Y” tight end — meaning a tight end in the traditional mold of the position, who can impact the game as a receiver and a blocker.

Campbell agreed with that assessment, and said it is getting harder to find a player like that in modern football.

---

quote:

---

Since the Saints drafted Trautman, Campbell’s interaction with him has been limited to near daily positional meetings by video teleconference.

“You can find out real quick, first, does a guy really love football or talking football and then second, how much does he know and how quickly does he pick up on it?” Campbell said. “... This kid is a little bit more than a Level 1 thinker. He's an advanced thinker and he wants to know and loves talking football and from that perspective you feel pretty good about it.

“Mentally you're like, man, that makes me want to get to camp and see what this guy can handle.”

And the Saints believe the feeling is mutual for Trautman.

“He's raring to go,” Carmichael said. “He loves the game. He can't wait till the day that training camp starts. … We're really excited about having him and he's going to have a role for us."

---