Bullard, Blackmon bring 14 years of combined experience to New Orleans’ defense, signed with Saints during training camp

METAIRIE, La. (WGNO) – New Orleans continues to elevate its already veteran-led defense.

This time, new additions in the trenches and the secondary.

The Saints add defensive end Jonathan Bullard and safety Julian Blackmon, who bring a combined experience of 14 years in the league and both former third-round picks.

For Bryan Bresee, entering his third year in the league, he’s been able to learn a little from the new pair.

“They’ve been awesome. It’s been a short time so far getting them in here but they’ve been great”, says Bresee. “I got to talk with them the last two days and pick their brains a little bit as well but they’ve been awesome.

In the second week of training camp, day five is when the Black and Gold will practice in pads for the first time and that’s when we’ll see more physical performances.

As Bullard and Blackmon get more settled with the team, it hasn’t been much of a learning curve. For them, it’s about adjusting to a new system.

“The guys we’ve signed, they’re veterans and they understand how this thing works”, says head coach Kellen Moore. “When you play a lot of football, a lot of the times, it just comes down to language. You’ve played a lot of similar schemes at other places. It’s just connecting the dots of what the language is and how it’s going to apply.”

Blackmon comes to New Orleans with a high ceiling.

Spending last season in Indianapolis, he suffered a torn labrum in week 1 but despite that injury, he started a career-high of 16 games, recording 86 sacks, 3 picks and 1 fumble recovery.

Stepping up to fill the shoes of newly retired, Tyrann Matheiu, Moore says Blackmon’s game is similar to the honey badger.

“Anytime you do lose a player, you’d like to fill in the gaps as closely as you can and so we feel like we accomplished both of those things. We got a really really good player who’s played a lot of football at a really really high level and certainly his position, where he’ll play certainly complements and tends to lean towards how Tyrann played.”

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Bullard, Blackmon bring 14 years of combined experience to New Orleans’ defense, signed with Saints during training camp

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