The New Orleans Saints will have some Super Bowl Champion caliber company at the team's training camp at the Greenbrier in West Virginia late this summer.
The defending world champion New England Patriots will travel to White Sulphur Springs to practice against the Saints leading up to the two teams' pre-season faceoff in New Orleans on August 22.
"This will be the third time we've done it, and that's really the only planned joint practice," Coach Sean Payton said Thursday after the team's OTA practice. "I have to look at the calendar but I think two or three days prior to playing them down here in our second preseason game. So that is the team we plan on practicing with, we've done it before. Like I said this will be the third time."
Payton says the Black and Gold has benefitted from the two previous times these two squads faced off for several days of preseason joint practices.
"I think it can come at a time when you can work against different looks defensively and offensively," Payton said. "It also can pick up the focus and attention to detail. Typically and our experience has been when we have had practices with New England, I can't speak for Bill Belichick, but I think we have done a really good job of focusing on certain periods and it gives you a different look. It gives you a different offense, a different defense, maybe techniques and certainly for us they are one of those teams that we feel like have been right at the top each year competing for a championship. The experience has been good in the past."
The Saints had also considered holding joint practices with the Houston Texans the following week, going into the Week 3 preseason game featuring the two teams on Sunday, August 30 in New Orleans. However, those plans have been scrapped, perhaps partially due to the fact the Texans will be featured on HBO's hit show 'Hard Knocks.'
"Well we typically have gone with one team," Payton said. "We discussed and talked about a second team, really the decision was more about getting back into a schedule here and then certainly recognizing the fact that they are going to be featured on 'Hard Knocks.' But it was really about our team and what is best for us."
