Chris Olave had the play of the day for the New Orleans Saints on Wednesday, the second day of the team’s mandatory minicamp.
On the first play of a two-minute drill, Olave made a contested catch near the sideline over Alontae Taylor that went for a 65-yard touchdown.
Making contested catches is one of the areas Dennis Allen has wanted to see Olave improve after a stellar rookie season when he caught 72 passes for 1,042 yards and four touchdowns.
"Getting some run after the catch, making those contested catches," Allen said. "That’s why we went up and got him when we did in the draft. Those are the type of plays we know that he can make, and those are the type of plays that we expect him to make."
Olave’s play came on the first one of the situational drill that had the offense trailing by five with 1:45 on the clock and the ball at its own 35-yard line. The objective was to see the offense score, then convert a two-point conversion to go up three points. The offense failed to convert the two-point conversion.
Overall, Allen was pleased with the day’s practice.
"We got here and competed, and I thought we got better today," Allen said. "And that’s really what this time of year is all about. We are competing against each other, but we are also competing against the other 31 teams in our league right now."
The Saints conclude minicamp Thursday.
No Cam
Saints defensive end Cam Jordan missed practice for a second straight day.
Allen gave a witty response when asked whether the 33-year-old Jordan’s absence was injury related.
"I call it old-age related," Allen said. "Cam is fine."
According to sources, Jordan is dealing with a minor heel injury, but it's not considered serious.
Absences
Jordan was one of five players not spotted in the portion of practice open to the media. The other four were offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz, receiver Rashid Shaheed, defensive end Carl Granderson and defensive back Anthony Johnson. Six players (receiver Michael Thomas, running back Kendre Miller, running back Eno Benjamin, offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri, offensive lineman Trevor Penning and tight end Miller Forristall) attended practice but didn’t participate in any of the drills.
Slow start
The offense got off to a slow start during a 7-on-7 drill, with a pair of Derek Carr incompletions. The first one was a ball thrown low to Juwan Johnson. The second was a dropped pass by Alvin Kamara. Then the offense got going as Carr completed passes to Olave, Foster Moreau, Tre’Quan Smith and Kamara. Jameis Winston then completed all four of his passes during the session. Kawaan Baker, SaRodorick Thompson, Keith Kirkwood and Malik Flowers all caught passes from Winston. The session ended with Jake Haener completing one of two passes. Overall, the trio of quarterbacks completed 9 of 12 passes in the 7-on-7 drills.
Lagniappe
Taysom Hill, one day after spending most of his time with the quarterbacks, worked exclusively with the tight ends. Hill caught one pass from Haener in 7-on-7 drills. … Taylor redeemed himself at the end of practice by intercepting a pass by Haener.