{"id":245877,"date":"2025-07-29T17:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/245877\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:36:15","slug":"kelvin-banks-jr-gave-saints-coaches-something-to-cheer-about-in-one-on-one-drills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/245877\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelvin Banks Jr. gave Saints coaches something to cheer about in one-on-one drills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve seen some encouraging signs early at <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-orleans-saints\/350\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New Orleans Saints;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New Orleans Saints<\/a> training camp, but perhaps none more impressive (and more welcome) than the debut of first-round pick Kelvin Banks Jr. He&#8217;s taken the majority of his snaps at left tackle and figures to be the Week 1 starter at that spot. And the very early returns suggest he&#8217;s making good on the potential of the ninth overall draft pick.<\/p>\n<p>The rookie lineman wasted no time making his presence felt on the first day of padded practices, bringing a level of physicality and nastiness that stood out right away. In a clip shared by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nick_underhill\/status\/1949845989558296957\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:NewOrleans.Football&#039;s Nick Underhill;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">NewOrleans.Football&#8217;s Nick Underhill<\/a>, the offensive line is seen working through one-on-one pass protection reps. When Banks Jr. got his chance, he for sure made it count &#8212; stonewalling veteran edge rusher Chris Rumph (No. 98) and putting him into the dirt with a dominating finish and earning some praise from his coach. That&#8217;s exactly what you want to see from a young player shouldering high expectations.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of performance is highly promising from your projected starting left tackle. Seeing Banks Jr. embrace the physicality of the NFL and get off to a fast start is an encouraging sign for the rookie. For comparison, we\u2019ve seen former first-round pick Trevor Penning &#8212; despite his impressive physical tools &#8212; struggle to adjust over the past few years. That contrast only makes Banks\u2019 early impact all the more impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/saintswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/saints\/2025\/07\/29\/saints-training-camp-practice-highlights-kelvin-banks-jr-texas-longhorns-nfl-draft-picks\/85421660007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Saints training camp: Kelvin Banks Jr. sets the tone, wows coaches;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Saints training camp: Kelvin Banks Jr. sets the tone, wows coaches<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve seen some encouraging signs early at New Orleans Saints training camp, but perhaps none more impressive (and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[49281,7,2987,896,55,2572,2571,6,3697,397,8581],"class_list":{"0":"post-245877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-banks-jr","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kelvin-banks-jr","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-saints","13":"tag-neworleans","14":"tag-neworleanssaints","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nick-underhill","17":"tag-saints","18":"tag-trevor-penning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114937737222283382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}