Metairie, La. — The back-up quarterbacks held it down on the first day of minicamp while Drew Brees was gone, but the Saints’ starter was back with his team for day two.
“It’s always good to have him around,” said Saints tight end Jared Cook. “He’s our leader on offense. He’s the voice of the offense and he’s the guy that commands attention. Whenever you can hear a play coming out of his mouth, learning how he calls the cadence, learning how he gets in and out of checks at the line of scrimmage is completely different from when Teddy or Taysom does it. Whenever you can hear directly from his mouth, it makes all the difference in the world.”
“When he’s out there, it’s a whole different level of intensity and swag,” said Saints running back Latavius Murray. “So any time you’re out there with a player like that, it’s just good to be out there with him so you can play with him, get to learn from him, get a feel for his style of play, his level of play.”
With OTAs and now a couple minicamp practices under their belts, Cook and Murray seem to be coming along and finding their roles in the offense.
“I’m studying every night,” Cook said. “I’m in it all afternoon just trying to figure out the difference nuances. Every day is a new install so I just have to keep refreshing it over and over again.”
“For some of us still learning and going out there and trying to get the skill-set down and work on our craft,” Murray said. “But for the most part I think we’re doing some good things. But right now it’s all about working, improving, getting better as a team.”
“Latavius cool,” said Saints running back Alvin Kamara. “He’s working. He’s getting better every day. He may have tips for me. I’ve got tips for him. He’s still figuring it out, figuring out Drew, figuring out the offense but he wants to learn and he wants to be good. He’s not worried about trying to come in and fill somebody’s shoes. He’s worried about being him. That’s the biggest credit to him I think. I think a lot of people put a lot of pressure on that– that role, filling that role. Do you think you can be as good as Mark was with Alvin. It’s not about that. It’s about him being the best Latavius he can be and I think he’s doing that.”
