William Hetzer, Sr.
June 1, 2007
Gerald Hite, Sr.
June 8, 2007
AP-Saints first-round draft choice Robert Meachem sat out the final practice of minicamp on Sunday afternoon with a white bandage wrapped around the lower part of his right leg.
He did not speak to reporters coming off the field, nor did head coach Sean Payton. Team spokesman Greg Bensel said Payton would discuss the matter later, possibly on Monday.
Meachem, selected 27th overall in this year’s draft out of Tennessee, also missed part of minicamp with a sprained left ankle and was criticized at that time by Payton for being out of shape.
Meachem has since lost weight and was able to participate in four of the five minicamp practices.
Quarterback Drew Brees said Sunday that he does not yet think he’s seen Meachem’s full potential, but has high hopes for him.
“I like him,” Brees said. “I think he’s been real hampered by his ankle and that sort of thing, but I think he’s got a lot of talent. I really like the way he catches the ball. He attacks it, and I think he’s going to be a big run-after-catch kind of guy. He’s going to be big and physical, kind of hard to bring down, kind of like a (Marques) Colston. So I think he’ll add a nice dimension to our offense.”
FRED’S FATE
Cornerback Fred Thomas, maligned for being beaten on several long touchdown passes late last season, participated in special teams drills on Sunday.
Payton said that doesn’t mean Thomas won’t be expected to fight to get his starting cornerback job back.
“This is the time of the year where they’re all actively being taught, whether it’s coverage or return units, so we haven’t even gotten near the point where we’re going to begin to start sorting through the first or second wave,” Payton said.
Payton noted that newly acquired cornerback Jason David, a likely starter given the four-year, $15.6 million contract he signed as a restricted free agent, also was working with special teams.
The 33-year-old Thomas, now in his 12th NFL season, has been with the Saints since 2000 and has been a frequent starter since 2001. In 2006, he injured his hamstring in midseason and later his hand, playing in December with a cast.
“It’s easy to start singling out guys,” Payton said. “Until he got injured prior to the Pittsburgh game, he played at a high level. Then he got nicked up.”
Payton stopped short of saying criticism of Thomas last season was unfair, but emphasized that cornerbacks’ mistakes tend to be more easily exposed because they often result in big catches for opponents, such as Bernard Berrian’s 33-yard touchdown for Chicago in the second half of the Bears’ victory over New Orleans in the NFC championship game.
“Sometimes there’s positions that are out there a little bit more so than others and it’s easy to all of a sudden look at one specific game and say, ‘Man, if that didn’t happen …'” Payton said. “If we didn’t turn the ball over in Chicago we had a better chance of winning that football game.
“So, fortunately, we’re dealing with guys who don’t pay a lot of attention to what the experts think in regard to evaluations. What’s most important is our evaluation and that will take place over a long period of time and will be based on what we see on the field, really,” Payton said.
“There’s no reason for us not to play the best guy and I think the one thing our players understand by now is we’re going to play the best players, and it’s going to be, really, a result of what we see on the field, regardless of how they came here.”
