Final preseason game is a last chance for some players to make Saints roster
The final New Orleans Saints preseason game is a necessary evil, an exercise in futility, a waste of season-ticket holder time and money.
The elite players don’t play, or, if they do, only long enough to break a sweat.
Winning and losing is irrelevant, no different than any over-priced preseason game. Emerging injury-free from Game 4 is a top priority.
Many ticket holders don’t go. Many sell their tickets with the hope of recouping face value or simply give them away to friends, family, business associates or the man on the street. Many bring their children and crying/sleeping babies on a school night and leave by halftime, turning the Mercedes-Benz Superdome into a vast wasteland of empty seats.
In other words, the end to the irregular season and the start of the regular season can’t come soon enough.
But to those players clinging to the bubble and battling to make a roster spot in WhoDat-ville or elsewhere, Thursday’s exhibition finale at 7 p.m. against the Los Angeles Rams is the end of the world.
Wide receiver Austin Carr, rookie offensive lineman Will Clapp of New Orleans, wide receiver/returner Tommylee Lewis, running back Shane Vereen and pass rusher/OLB Hau’oli Kikaha to name a few. I’ll even throw in veteran WR Ted Ginn Jr., who stretches the field but also has stretched coach Sean Payton’s patience this preseason.
Quarterback Drew Brees has no worries. His 18th NFL season is locked and loaded. No. 9 likely will participate in pregame warmups, then stand on the sideline chewing seeds, kibitzing with teammates and watching reserves Tom Savage, Taysom Hill and J.T. Barrett share snaps.
Oh, Brees will have his head in the game but only in spirit.
Saints wide receiver Cameron Meredith also has no worries, despite zero receptions in 49 snaps over two games going into Thursday night. He’s been targeted twice, once bobbling a pass thrown by Hill that resulted in an INT inside the Arizona 25.
Meredith was assured of making the team when the Chicago Bears declined to match a two-year, $9.5 million offer sheet from the Saints in free agency that featured more than half in guaranteed money.
Meredith is rounding into football shape and remains a work in progress after recovering from reconstructive knee surgery.
Saints GM Mickey Loomis, Payton and the team’s football operations are banking Meredith eventually will return big dividends.
Meantime, Carr, a poor man’s Lance Moore and Willie Snead, if you will, continues to fight for his NFL life.
He has six catches for 75 yards through three games, shown true grit as a slot receiver and seems to have earned Brees’ respect and confidence.
In an exhibition game of little importance, I am pulling for Carr to survive and advance.`
Brian Allie-Walsh, a longtime Saints reporter based in New Orleans, can be reached at sports@sunherald.com.
This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 1:25 PM.