Saints Gab

Saints wide out Marques Coltson says he’ll be ready to go for training next month despite having arthroscopic surgery on the left knee that bothered him last season. The former Hofstra receiver is looking to come back strong in 2008 despite having a better 2nd season than his first, as he had 98 catches for 1202 yards and 11 scores last year, as compared to 70 catches for 1038 yards and 8 TD’s his rookie year.

“Unfortunately I’m a vet to the surgeries, so I know exactly what it takes. I’ve just got to be patient with it,” said Colston “I had a lot of irritation going on in there throughout the season. Now’s the time to clean it up and get healthy.”

After somewhat of a slow start, which was the case for many of the Saints, Coltson caught fire down the stretch, catching 28 balls his last four games, scoring five times. He had his biggest game in week 9 against the Jags at home when he pulled in 10 passes for 159 yards. He will be counted on to be a big part of the Siants attack in 2008, and having him as close to 100 percent as possible is a key to to the teams success.

The Tampa Tribune is reporting that the Saints have offered a deal to unrestricted free agent guard/center Matt Lehr to a contract. Last season Lehr didn’t start with the Buccaneers, but did appear in every game. He was a 5th round pick by the Cowboys back in 2001, and is 6-foot-2, 304 pounds. It’s being said that the Browns and Broncos both also showed interest in Lehr.

Being a big-time NFL celeb, running back Reggie Bush is telling the media that he is going to commit himself more to his profession this year, and that he plans on spending a majority of the offseason training with his Saints teammates. “I feel like I’m maturing and I feel like that’s what it’s all about,” Bush said. “Maturing and learning. Going through life’s experiences and football, it’s the right thing to do is to be here and working out with my teammates. I’m going to be here as much as possible, as much as I can.”

Bush was on the run quite a bit in the offseason last year, not doing as much training, but instead going around doing commercials and flying across the country. This year is going to be different if you listen to what Bush says, and he says that the focus will be on the field, not making money off of it. It is something that pleases his coach, Sean Payton. “He plans on being involved in all of our offseason, which is encouraging and good,” Payton said. “I think it’s important for him, especially running backs the pounding they take, to be real diligent in the weight room. That’s his plans.”

The plans are for Bush to have a much better season than he did in 2007, when he had to take the brunt of the carries after Deuce McAllister went down. Bush ended the season with 581 yards and four touchdowns, but the 3.7 yards per carry average was well below what he and the Saints would like to see out of him.

The New Orleans Saints added depth to the tight end position when on Tuesday, according to the team’s website, they re-signed TE Eric Johnson to a one-year contract; as per custom, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Johnson played 14 games for the Saints last season, catching 48 passed for 378 yards and 2 touchdowns.  After spending his first 6 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, he was expendable as the team drafted Vernon Davis in the first round of the 2006 draft; he signed with New Orleans last March

The New Orleans Saints retained one of their tight ends from last season as on Friday, they re-signed Billy Miller to a contract; Miller, an eight-year veteran, has been with the Saints since 2006.  Since joining the Saints, Miller has started 9 of 26 games and caught 41 passes for 457 yards; he has career numbers of 155 receptions for 1,669 and 9 touchdowns.  The signing gives the Saints 2 quality TE’s, including Mark Campbell – who spent last season on injured reserve.

It certainly didn’t take long for ex-Carolina Panther linebacker Dan Morgan to find work; the New Orleans Saints, continuing their defensive makeover, came to terms with Morgan on a contract Friday.  A first-round pick of the Carolina Panthers in 2001, Morgan was limited to just four games in the past 2 seasons due to injuries.

Morgan was released by Carolina on February 11; he recorded just 22 tackles in 3 games  before suffering a partial Achilles tendon tear in Week 3 of the 2007 season.  Careerwise, Morgan appeared in only 59 of a possible 112 games for the Panthers; as a result, patience from within the team’s front office wore thin – hence his release. 

One of the leading receivers for the New Orleans Saints last season has decided to re-up for another tour of duty; the Associated Press reports that wide receiver David Patten has agreed to a new 2-year contract on Monday.  According to team general manager Mickey Loomis, “David stepped into our lineup immediately last season and provided immediate leadership and he was a consistent and dependable target.  “He is a consummate professional and his work ethic and leadership skills, coupled with the things he can do on the field made his re-signing a priority for us.”

Patten, an 11-year veteran, caught 54 passes for 792 yards last season; during his career, he has caught 313 passes for 4,553 yards and 23 touchdowns.  He was also part of 3 Sup Bowl winning teams while a member of the New England Patriots. 

Just two days after losing Asante Samuel the New England Patriots have lost another cornerback from their roster. The New Orleans Saints have signed Randall Gay to a reported 4-year $17.6 million dollar contract.

Gay,25, a Louisiana native and a LSU graduate had spent  his first four years in the league with the Patriots where he recorded 86 tackles and 5 interceptions in 39 games. This is one of many moves to bolster a defense that was 7-9 in 2007.

Apparently the Saints had been targeting Gay in free agency, “Randall is a player we targeted early on in this free agent market and we’re extremely pleased to be able to bring him on board,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said. “He’s a very talented player that has demonstrated throughout his football career that he is a winner and we’re confident he will prove to be an asset to our defense.”

Gay,  appeared in all 16 games  including three starts  with the AFC Champion Patriots last season, wrapping up the campaign with career highs of 38 tackles and three interceptions.

The deal is also reported to have incentives based on playing time.

The Saints continue to sign players, with two players coming back to the team yesterday, and today the team going outside the organization to grab former Jags DE Bobby McCray.  The announcement of the signing came earlier today from Executive VP and GM Mickey Loomis.  McCray was a starter on the Jags D-line the past two seasons, and is tied for 7th in franchise history with now Bills DT Marcus Stroud with 22 career sacks.  The five-year deal is worth $20 million with another $4.5 million in escalators.  He’ll make $5 million in the first year of the deal.  The team should have a very solid D-line when it comes to pass rushers, as he will team with Will Smith and Charles Grant to rush the passer.  One down point is his sack total was down 10 in 2006 to just three last season.

The Saints earlier today announced that they are bringing back wide out Devery Henderson, who was a free agent.  The four-year vet was going to try the free agent market, but then pulled back and signed the deal with the Saints.  The terms nor the length of the deal is not known as of this writing.  Henderson has a history of drops, but last year still caught 20 passes for 409 yards and three scores.  In his career he has 74 grabs for 1497 yards and 11 scores.