Saints do not plan to pay RB Thomas much

The New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas was one of the key parts in Saints’ trio-RB scheme, but since becoming a restricted free agent earlier this offseason he has been asking for a salary raise and has not received anything other than a one-year, $1.7 million tender offer.

The No. 23 Saints jersey has not been seen in Saints’ practice facility for several days since the beginning of first minicamp. Comparing to Thomas’ positive attitude towards his contract at first offseason workouts, he is now far away from being happy and optimistic. He is not expecting a lucrative long-term deal like the one given to guard Jahri Evans, but he thinks he is at least worth a four-year, $11 million contract, which, however, on Saints’ side is too much for a backup running back.

Yeah, that’s the point. The Saints take Thomas as a backup running back, and the franchise has not tradition to pay much for a backup player. They know well that a backup player lacking starting experience could hardly find a new job of good pay with another team. And they are confident that Thomas will anyway return to the team, just like safety Darren Sharper. Even if Thomas is determined to leave, the team still has exclusive right on the restricted free agent and owns the right to negotiate any possible trade.

Saints RB Pierre Thomas sipped minicamp

The New Orleans Saints began the team’s first mandatory practices on this morning, but their leading running back Pierre Thomas was not seen, neither was two-time Pro Bowl left tackle Jammal Brown. Reports said that both skipped the minicamp for unhappiness with the slow negotiation on their new contracts.

According to Saints head coach Sean Payton, Brown was expected to be absent because he had been unavailable for the all the previous practices after having an offseason surgery, and Thomas’ absence was neither a surprise as he already skipped last weekend’s optional practices. Both of the absent players are restricted free agents yet to sign their tender offer while negotiating with the team on new contracts. Under such condition, the two won’t be fined for missing mandatory practices as they are not applied to any contract terms. However the head coach still hopes the two to wear back their Saints jerseys for offseason team practices as he does not think missing workouts is the best way to show unhappiness with contract.

To fans’ gladness, tight end Jeremy Shockey did appear for the minicamp. He suffered a seizure last weekend and was sent to hospital shortly afterwards. His absence from Friday’s practice caused a lot of doubts and now that he appeared for the mandatory practices, we could be assured that he has been really fine for the new season.

Respected Saints fan died of car accident

A man named Alex Yoncak died in a car accident on April 21, and not many people paid much attention to it. However, to most New Orleans Saints fans, the death of Yoncak was a great loss and his name will be remembered just as any Saints star player because of his kindness to others.

Yoncak had been revered as the Drew Brees or Jeremy Shockey of Saints fans’ online community at SaintsReport.com. His avatar was himself wearing the No.26 Saints jersey and is well-known among veteran and rookie Saints fans. Having been a Saints fan since he was only 7 years old, Yoncak was always willing to offer any kind of help to his fellow fans and is one of the most active members in the online community.

Yoncak has been as great in his offline life. The kind man always offered help to people around him and far away from him as long as he was able to do anything to help. He saved a boy from ice, coached youth sports teams and DJ’d at church and school functions. He even flied to Mexico to help local people rebuild homes after seeing homelessness and despair in the county on news report.

Former Saints DE Grant pleaded no contest to affray

On the same day when former Minnesota Vikings defensive end Erasmus James received his sentence for a bar fight, the New Orleans Saints also had a former player, also defensive end, to be sentenced. Is this another competition? Not sure. But fortunately both of the two trouble-makers are no longer to have relation to the two teams.

The former Saints player is Charles Grant, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter in a nightclub fight, which caused a 23-year-old pregnant woman to be killed. Grant himself was also stabbed in the neck during the fight. As there has been no evidence showing that Grant was the one who shot, he was sentenced to probation as well as $1,000 fine and to pay $20,000 for the cost of investigation held by the Early County Sheriff’s Office.

Grant was a first-round pick by the Saints in 2002 and he has spent all of his first eight seasons with the Saints, with a total records of 431 tackles and 293 47 sacks, but the team still released during this offseason. Even if the team did not do that, after the serious neck injury, it would still be unlikely for him to wear back Saints jersey to play any more football.

Former Saints RB’s son will try out at rookie camp

The New Orleans Saints will hold rookie minicamp at this weekend, and among the 65 participants, there will be a familiar face to Saints fans. Son of former Saints running back, Craig Heyward, was also invited to have a tryout of the Saints jersey his late father used to wear.

With a height of 6 feet and weight of 234 pounds, Heyward Jr. did not have as much experience of playing football as many other tryout players. Only playing sparingly as work-on at Middle Tennessee State, he does not seem to have good chance of winning any spot with the Saints. However, even just showing respects to his late father, the young man should just do his best to impress Saints coaches as much as he can.

Old Heyward died of brain cancer in 2006, when his sons had not started their college football career. Heyward later joined the Blue Raiders as a walk-on on the scout team and did not earn a roster spot until his senior year. His total number during the college football career included only two kickoff returns for 23 yards and four carries for three yards. By comparison, his younger brother, Cameron Heyward, seems to have a more promising future on the football field. Cameron is now already a standout defensive end at Ohio State and is hopefully to be a first-round pick in 2011 NFL draft.

Saints plan to relocate seats for 1,200 season ticket holders

The New Orleans Saints have been struggling with bad public relation since the Vicodin scandal. The team’s clarification seems not convincing enough, suspected head coach Sean Payton released statement to deny the abuse, but that did not reduce speculations to other members of the team. So the Saints need to do something more.

They do, but not for the Vicodin theft case. The Saints are now making plans to relocate a group of 1,200 season tickets holders, who was displaced last season after the Saints changed the arrangement of seasons in Superdome and moved the press box to the upper regions of the building. As a result, these tickets holders had to watch games in the cold wind for a couple of months and earned a name of “the missing 1,200”.

As an effort to improve their relationship with the public, the Saints are now reaching out to contract the 1,200 ticket holder to carry out the new relocating plan. According to reports, they made promise in late April that they need two to three weeks to get everything solved. So the “missing 1,200” won’t have to wait for long before they can put on Saints jerseys to enjoy watching the Super Bowl XLIV winner team defending their title in 2010 season.

Jaguars RFA LB Ingram is trying chance with Saints

While the New Orleans Saints unrestricted free agent safety Darren Sharper is making his trip with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Jaguars restricted free agent linebacker Clint Ingram was also have a visit in New Orleans to see if he could have a new job there.

The 27-year-old Ingram could play at outside linebacker, which is still a void after former starter Scott Fujita was signed away by the Cleveland Browns in free agency and the Saints did not pick any rookie at this position during the three-day draft. Therefore, young six-year pro Ingram could offer a great help to the team’s defensive line if a deal is really to be done. Well, it’s just a possibility, as he is still facing competition with other candidates like Jonathan Casillas, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Marvin Mitchell, Anthony Waters, Stanley Arnoux and veteran Troy Evans.

Here a few good reasons for Ingram to put on New Orleans Saints jersey. With a height of 6-2 and weight of 240 pounds, Ingram has had good experience of starting at outside linebacker as it was mostly his job during his four-year career with the Jaguars. Besides, the Saints current defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was working for the Jaguars in 2008 as the defensive coordinator. What’s more, Ingram ended last season early with a shoulder injury but still managed to have 52 tackle and one sack during the 12 games he played.

Saints need time to prove their choices right

It’s only a few days after the 2010 NFL draft, and people have been already expecting the grade of teams’ draft picks. While most people do not expect the New Orleans Saints to rank high with their choices, some analysts pointed out that it may take some time before the newly drafted rookies to show their value to the team.

The Saints did not seem to have urgent needs in any positions before the draft, but since they had the picks, they still made some choices with the plan of finding some young players with potentials. The selection of LSU defensive tackle AI woods is unlikely to add much help as a run-stopper to the defensive interior, but given time and learning, he just has great chance of developing into what we expect him to be. Another interesting choice made by Saints was the selection of tight end Jimmy Graham. Graham had only one-year experience of playing football after converting from basketball to football. However, analysts predict that Saints Coach Sean Payton will anyhow find the best way to utilize him at red zone.

Therefore, we may not have high expectation of how good the Saints choices could be during the rookies’ first year of wearing Saints jerseys. And any immediate grade of draft picks could be proven to be incorrect a year later and the best rookie of the year 2010 is not necessarily to be those being drafted from the first round.