LSU players are longshots to make Saints

Published 8:00 am Sunday, May 12, 2019

METAIRIE — Cole Tracy knows his first NFL job probably won’t be with the New Orleans Saints.

Ed Paris knows he’s also a long shot, but there worse places he could be.

Cyril Grayson is a longer shot, but like Paris he’s a New Orleans native grateful for a chance to try out with their hometown team.

The three former Tigers were among 49 players participating in the Saints’ rookie mini-camp on a tryout basis this weekend.

The biggest challenge facing Tracy, who participated in Green Bay’s rookie mini-camp last weekend but didn’t receive a contract offer, is the presence of incumbent kicker Wil Lutz, who set a Saints record by making 27 consecutive field goals last season, then signed a new five-year contract after the season.

“Wil Lutz is a great kicker,” Tracy said. “I’m just trying to show what I’ve got.”

Tracy has a lot to show as the most prolific kicker in NCAA history, having made 29 of 33 field goals for LSU as a graduate transfer last season after spending three years at Division II Assumption College.

There are essentially just 32 kicking jobs in the NFL, so Tracy knows he has his work cut out for him.

“It’s the best league in the whole world,” he said. “It’s obviously very difficult.”

But he knows that if he performs well with the Saints, word will get around the NFL.

“This league is a lot smaller than people think,” he said. “Every opportunity that you have you try to make the most of it and put your best foot forward.”

Tracy has been working with former Saints and Pro Football Hall of Fame kicker Morten Andersen.

“He and I sat down basically an entire weekend and just talked the mental side,” Tracy said. “We went out on the field and kicked a little bit, but he said, ‘I’m not going to change much. You’ve got a lot of things going for you and I don’t want to mess that up.’”

As a safety, Paris has a better opportunity to find a spot with the Saints, though two of their top three draft choices — fourth-rounder Chauncey Gardner-Johnson of Florida and sixth-rounder Saquan Hampton of Rutgers — are providing plenty of competition right off the bat.

New Orleans has a track record of keeping relative longshots who out-perform more highly regarded prospects. Three undrafted free agents made last year’s team, which advanced to the NFC Championship Game.

“The very first meeting (the coaches) said it doesn’t matter what you did in college if you did start, didn’t start, if you played, didn’t play,” said Paris, who had an injured-plagued career with the Tigers. “Everybody starts back from scratch.”

Grayson was a track standout who’s making his third attempt at sticking with an NFL team as a wide receiver after previous stops in Seattle and Chicago.

Three other former Louisiana collegians — McNeese State quarterback James Tabary, McNeese punter Alex Kjellsten and Southeastern Louisiana defensive back Max Lyons — were also among the players trying out.

Presumably the players with the best chance of sticking around the longest are the draft choices, led by second-round round pick Erik McCoy, a center from Texas A&M. McCoy has a chance to start at the position vacated by the off-season retirement of Max Unger.

“I think it’s a really good fit,” McCoy said. “I’m still learning, still making mistakes. I have a long way to go.

“Terminology in college is pretty simple. I’ve learned in just the first two days here that it is not simple. There’s a lot more technique than I was used to in college so I’ve been working on that a lot. That’s something I’ve got to put a big emphasis on going forward.”

The mini-camp concludes Sunday and shortly thereafter, coach Sean Payton and his staff will decide which of the tryout players are deserving of contract offers.

“You’re trying to find traits that maybe draw you to a player, and then just importantly, what is the vision you have as a coaching staff for that player,” Payton said. “There are a lot of good football players that go undrafted. Each year history tells us that.”