{"id":885998,"date":"2026-05-08T20:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/885998\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:30:20","slug":"takeaways-from-day-1-of-new-orleans-saints-rookie-minicamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/885998\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from Day 1 of New Orleans Saints rookie minicamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first day of New Orleans Saints<\/a> rookie minicamp is in the books, and there’s a lot to take away from an early-afternoon look at football in shorts. Between the much-hyped rookie draft picks hitting the practice field and surprisingly hard-hitting questions for head coach Kellen Moore after practice, we’ve got plenty of ground to cover. Let’s hop to it.<\/p>\n

Almost all of the rookie draft class is under contract<\/p>\n

Seven of the eight players the Saints drafted signed their four-year rookie deals on Friday<\/a>: wide receiver Jordyn Tyson (Round 1), tight end Oscar Delp<\/a> (Round 3), guard Jeremiah Wright and wide receiver Bryce Lance (Round 4), safety Lorenzo Styles Jr. (Round 5), wide receiver Barion Brown<\/a> (Round 6), and cornerback TJ Hall (Round 7). That just leaves second-round defensive tackle Christen Miller as the lone unsigned rookie. This was something we expected given the unique status of contracts with Round 2 picks, but it’s also a situation the Saints have navigated before. It should be resolved soon enough.<\/p>\n

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Christen Miller isn’t practicing just yet<\/p>\n

Miller isn’t just unsigned — he isn’t practicing with the rest of the team, either<\/a>. Head coach Kellen Moore said something came up when Miller was being evaluated after reporting for minicamp and the team decided to slow him down before putting him on the field. They want him to ramp up responsibly and not aggravate a minor injury into becoming something serious. Moore downplayed the severity of the situation but it does sound like Miller will need some time before he gets the green light. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing for someone who plays a position that won’t have much to do until pads come on later this summer.<\/p>\n

But Lorenzo Styles Jr. is ahead of schedule<\/p>\n

Styles underwent labrum surgery in February, but he was already lining up for drills on the special teams unit and practicing as a gunner during the punting period. That’s a very encouraging sign for somebody who will have to make an impact in the kicking game to secure a roster spot. Styles was only a part-time defender at Ohio State but his consistent play on special teams convinced the Saints to draft him. Practices are non-contact for now, but the more practice reps he can put on film, the better his chances to make the team.<\/p>\n

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Kellen Moore punts on Alvin Kamara<\/a> question<\/p>\n

The Times-Picayune’s Matthew Paras asked Moore about his take on Tyrann Mathieu’s comments that the Saints were mistreating Kamara<\/a>, but Moore didn’t give him much to work with: “I haven’t seen the quote, so I’d be poor to judge anything or comment on anything that I haven’t seen.” Moore repeated the same line he gave at owners meetings in March and after the draft in April that, in terms of the team’s relationship with Kamara, “Obviously we know what Alvin means to us. We love Alvin. We’ve gone through this process and so we’ll continue to go through it.” What the end result of that process looks like after all these months remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

New assistant OL coach Will Clapp<\/a> has slimmed down<\/p>\n

It isn’t uncommon for offensive linemen to shed 50 or even 100 pounds after retiring from their playing career, and that appears to be the case for Clapp, too. The newly-hired assistant offensive line coach was active on Friday and working with the rookies. Clapp was drafted by the Saints back in 2018 out of LSU and played for Moore on the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>. Now he’s assisting his position coach at the time, Brendan Nugent, after team legend Jahri Evans<\/a> left for a fresh start on the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Highlights from Day 1 at Saints rookie minicamp<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: New Orleans Saints rookie minicamp: Observations, notes, highlights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first day of New Orleans Saints rookie minicamp is in the books, and there’s a lot to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[2825,7479,32199,7,11379,7602,7166,2238,262,896,55,2572,2571,6,38680,57,397,8530,8532,8337],"class_list":["post-885998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-new-orleans-saints","tag-alvin-kamara","tag-barion-brown","tag-christen-miller","tag-football","tag-jahri-evans","tag-jordyn-tyson","tag-kellen-moore","tag-lorenzo-styles-jr","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanssaints","tag-nfl","tag-oscar-delp","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-saints","tag-tyrann-mathieu","tag-will-clapp","tag-younghoe-koo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116540854986232399","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885998","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=885998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}