Saints Day 5 observations: You win some, you lose some in red zone work

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The New Orleans Saints took practice outside for the third consecutive day, playing under a cloudless sky for their fifth practice of training camp at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center in Metairie.

Saturday’s practice stretched for two hours and 15 minutes. Here are the observations.

PARTICIPATION
Left guard Andrus Peat (thumb) missed his fifth practice, but was in uniform off to the side getting some running in. Tight end Josh Hill appeared to get some limited work in before the team began its stretch, but did not participate beyond that.

Quarterback Taysom Hill missed his second consecutive practice to be present for the birth of his son — which he announced on social media Saturday afternoon. That left the quarterback duties to Drew Brees and Jameis Winston.

The rest of the absences were all on the defensive side: Linebacker Anthony Chickillo missed his fifth practice, and defensive tackle Shy Tuttle was absent for the third consecutive practice. Defensive backs Johnson Bademosi and Keith Washington were also absent Saturday.

OFFENSIVE LINE WORK
No changes yet along the Saints offensive line, as Erik McCoy continued to take all the first-team snaps at center while flanked by left guard Nick Easton and right guard Cesar Ruiz.

Starting tackles Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk were also on the field for their second consecutive practice with the first team after taking a light day Thursday.

RED ZONE BACK AND FORTH
The team periods were devoted to working in the red zone, with the Saints running roughly 50 plays total. Saturday’s practice included an emphasis on the run game, with plays ending on a thud rather than a full tackle.

With that in mind, it is hard to get a full read on the effectiveness of some of the plays: There was one such play where defensive end Carl Granderson was in perfect position to stuff an Alvin Kamara run, but Kamara did not get a legitimate chance to break a tackle.

But a few players managed to stand out: Running backs Ty Montgomery and Tony Jones both showed patience while breaking off a few nice runs with the second unit.

The offense and defense traded blows when the emphasis shifted toward the passing plays. On multiple occasions Brees and Winston had to hold the ball well after the snap because the secondary covered up their routes, and several defenders came up with pass breakups to spoil plays.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Patrick Robinson, Marshon Lattimore and D.J. Swearinger all knocked passes down Saturday, though Robinson was upset with himself for not coming down with an interception on an underthrown ball intended for tight end Adam Trautman.

The offense had its share of wins, though. Brees lofted a pretty pass to a streaking Michael Thomas for an interception over a leaping Robinson on his last throw of the day.

Second-year receiver Emmanuel Butler made another highlight catch in Saturday’s practice as well, sitting down in the vacated spot of the Saints’ defensive coverage and making a lunging catch of a low throw from Winston for a score.

ODDS AND ENDS
Emmanuel Sanders won both of his one-on-one reps against Marshon Lattimore in Saturday’s practice … Swearinger earned some praise from defensive backs coach Aaron Glenn for the way he was communicating coverage pre-snap during team drills. The play resulted in an incomplete pass despite the offensive line giving Winston a lot of time to find an open receiver … Linebacker Alex Anzalone was not given credit for a pass breakup, but his coverage down the seam on a pass intended for Jared Cook left virtually no room for a pass to be completed … Rookie punter Blake Gillikin handled punting duties Saturday and was impressive, landing several inside the 10-yard line … Brees scrambled for a touchdown run during one team drill and capped it off with a finger-roll over the goal post.

UP NEXT
The Saints are back with their sixth full-pads practice Sunday.