Saints assistant coaches Ronald Curry and Curtis Johnson have made quite the team coaching the wide receivers since Johnson returned to New Orleans in 2017.
Last season they saw Michael Thomas catch a record-breaking 149 passes. Now they’ll get to figure out what they can do with a solid No. 2 receiver in Emmanuel Sanders.
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“I think that Sanders is a welcome addition. He’s a veteran, he’s played in big games. He played in the Super Bowl last year,” Curry said. “He has played with some great quarterbacks, (such as) Peyton Manning. So the adjustment with Drew (Brees) will be awesome. Looking forward to the veteran leadership. I think one of Ted Ginn Jr.’s best attributes was his leadership in that room, with him being gone and departed, I think (Sanders) can come in and fill those shoes. He’s a special talent and a unique talent. I think him and Drew are going to hit it off.”
While the Saints have some intriguing young receivers with potential, it’s Sanders they’re most eager to get on the field. While Curry said it’s hard to specifically pinpoint the vision for him without seeing it in practice, they alluded to something similar to his days with Manning in Denver.
“He’s a transitional player; you want to get the ball in his hands, you’ve got a vision for him on third down, winning one-on-one matchups in the red zone,” Curry said. “You feel like he’s going to fit in like Ted Ginn, a veteran that’s going to be where he’s supposed to be, on time, for Drew. Drew is a person that he needs a lot of work with. It doesn’t matter who it is that comes in here, (Brees) likes to find ways to work with guys and seeing their body language and how they get in and out of routes. We have a vision for him on third down and how we can use him, maybe taking some of that option stuff off of (Alvin Kamara’s) plate and some of the stuff that Ted Ginn was doing, double moves … transitional stuff. There’s a lot of stuff in this offense. … but we’ve got to see what he can handle first, too.”
The wide receivers coaches also discussed what the next step was for Thomas and some of the young players in an interview with the local media last week.
The Athletic is running a series catching up with the Saints coaches throughout the offseason. (Read the previous stories catching up with offensive line coach Dan Roushar, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, secondary coach Aaron Glenn, tight ends coach Dan Campbell and linebackers coach Michael Hodges.
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Harris likely will have a bigger role in the offense
Wide receiver Deonte Harris has been one of the best undrafted rookie free agent pickups in years.
Harris secured a roster spot as a kick returner last summer despite dealing with hamstring issues off and on, and by the end of the season, he was an All-Pro.
But he only took 6 percent of the offensive snaps in the regular season, and that was intentional, not only with the early injuries but because the coaches wanted to bring him along slowly.
“We like to bring the young guys along slow, put him at one position, bring him in and kind of back Ted Ginn up doing some reverses and things of that nature,” Curry said. “But just getting to know him a little better. He missed a lot of training camp time with the hamstring. It was slow for him to get going, and it’s hard that we didn’t have a offseason this past offseason. So it’s kind of been hard to say how much he’s grown, but I’m pretty sure he’s somewhere putting in work. … He’ll come in and his role will expand. If you’ve been in our offense or around this team you know that guys fall into a role, and we have 30 days to kind of figure out what his role will be.”
Harris showed he can be an offensive weapon too when he caught a 50-yard pass from Taysom Hill against the Vikings in the playoffs last season in a play that was specifically drawn up for him. Earlier in the season Harris was low on the pecking order of receivers.
“It’s not because the player can’t play. It’s more because when you’re drawing up the offense, first you’re going to think about Mike and then you’re probably going to think about (Jared) Cook and then you’re probably going to think about AK,” Curry said. “So by the time you get to these guys, it’s kind of like basketball, you’re going to think about LeBron, LeBron, LeBron until he has to kick it to the corner for somebody else to shoot. You don’t draw those plays up for those guys, the ball just finds them and that’s just the way our offense (works). A lot of the plays are not drawn up for Tre’Quan (Smith) and Shorty B (Harris), but eventually they double-team Mike … double-team Cook and somebody has to step up and then the ball finds them.”
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The coaches now must figure out how to utilize Harris’ speed and 5-foot-6, 170-pound frame while protecting one of their best special teams assets.
“I don’t see his size as a limitation,” Curry said. “We knew that (kick returner) would be his role. …
“Going forward, his role will grow just because he’s been here for a year and he’s going to be able to compete. Kind of the same situation as far as the receiver numbers that are back, but he’s a special talent. Guys of his stature have had great success in this league.”
Another record breaking year for Thomas?
Johnson had a quick response when asked how Thomas would follow up his record-breaking season.
“Well, he better break some more records. That’s what he better be doing,” Johnson said, laughing. “Look, I think Michael Thomas is a student of the game. He’s a football guy, he’s a football junkie. He loves football, he’s a smart guy. I wish he’d block a little bit better. We can put that in there, let’s throw that in. But last year, man, he really stepped up, he really played everywhere and did everything we asked him to do. He can also improve on catching every ball, instead of dropping like one or two.”
Johnson, 58, has been coaching since the ’80s, said Thomas stacks up among the best players he’s coached.
“He’s as big as Andre Johnson and Yatil Green, probably two of the biggest guys, he has hands like Reggie Wayne, he can separate like Santana Moss,” Johnson said. “He’s right there with all of them. He can make back-shoulder catches like (Marques) Colston. He’s not as fast as Devery (Henderson) or (Robert) Meachem, so I’m not going to give him that much, but I mean he’s up there with the top. I’ve never seen a big guy as courageous as he is and can separate the way that he does.”
Johnson said the 27-year-old Thomas has grown by leaps and bounds since they first met at the NFL Scouting Combine in 2016, when Johnson was with the Bears. Johnson said Thomas wasn’t exactly his biggest fan at first, and probably wasn’t thrilled when he found out they’d be reunited with the Saints.
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“(Bears GM) Ryan Pace told me, ‘Look, we want to get to this guy. We want to see what he’s really about.’ They’d heard some rumors at Ohio State, he was good or bad or whatever, so before the interview we’re out just kind of talking, I knew I kind of baited him in and then when I got in the interview, I drilled him,” Johnson said. “But Mike and I are good now. We are very, very good. He just bought my wife a great birthday present, so I’ve got to say Mike is my favorite right now, today.”
He added: “I have seen his personality come out more and more. He is a leader by example. He does some things I still don’t like, but that’s OK. But this guy is a tremendous leader. He’s always out there, always first in line. He’s going to show everybody he’s the best, and I love coaching him. He’s just a great guy to coach.”
Johnson said Thomas has been working out with Andreu Swasey, who also works with Kamara.
“He’ll call us, he is like our little third son. He keeps calling us all the time, bugging us about a lot of stuff. But we know he’s going to be big,” Johnson said. “Mike, we never worry about Mike. He’s always going to be in great condition. He is going to catch the ball and make plays. He loves football and he’s a good person.”
Coaches think Smith will break out soon
Smith didn’t exactly match the public expectations put on his shoulders after his rookie season. But his name came up unprompted several times during interviews with the Saints assistants last week, showing the coaches’ belief in him is high as he enters his third year in the league.
“I love Tre’Quan. I loved him coming out. I spent a lot of time watching film on him before we decided to draft him. He’s a unique player. As I talked earlier, everybody falls into a role,” Curry said. “Tre’Quan has skinny legs and skinny arms, but he is stronger than you think. He’s smart and knows the game of football. It means something to him. He puts in the work and he just needs to continue to play football, continue to receive opportunities, fix his stance. Once he fixes his stance I think he’ll be a little bit more explosive. He’ll be all right, we joke about that all the time.”
“He’s a special player. He just needs some opportunities, and a lot of people give us slack about needing guys because Mike Thomas gets all the balls and Mike Thomas is a hell of a player and Tre’Quan kind of gets slighted and when it comes to that it’s not that we don’t have a good guy on the other side, it’s just that Mike Thomas gets a lot of the passes. He takes it, Coach gets on him sometimes and you can coach him hard. I just think he needs to continue to show up and when the opportunity is there, you saw it last year, the game when Drew breaks the (yardage) record. … But when the opportunity has presented itself, he’s stepped up to the occasion, man. He just needs more opportunities, in my opinion.”
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Another thing that held Smith back was an ankle injury in Week 2 against the Rams. That limited him to 11 games last year. But if they can utilize his talent as a blocker and put him in the right position this year, the coaches think he could be special.
“Any setback for a young player in his second or third year is going to be a major setback,” Johnson said. “The one thing I would say about Tre’Quan also, we took him from an outside receiver and moved him to an inside receiver by necessity. He’s been outstanding doing those things. … I think his improvement is going to be drastic and he’s going to have a breakout season. Y’all can write that down!”
Butler will need to carve out a special teams role to make the team
Emmanuel Butler created a buzz in training camp last season but never took the next step forward to make the 53-man roster. If he wants to make the team this season, he might have to find a significant role on special teams.
“We saw him in training camp make a lot of plays, but then he suffered the injury that really set him back some and it happened when preseason was about to start. It would have been great to see him continue to grow,” Curry said. “But he’s a great kid, he works, he loves the work. We just have a great bunch. You hear us talking about one, but really we could talk about them all. But I think he just needs to grow a little on special teams and just continue what he’s doing and build on top of that. He’s out in Arizona working on that stuff that we need him to do to help us out next year.”
(Stephen Lew / Getty Images)