Favre’s possible return caused twitter fight between Saints and Vikings

Brett Favre’s surgery on his left ankle turns out to be more than a process to repair some parts of his own body, but also a sign to possible power ranking changes to two teams, the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. As the surgery indicated the possible return of the quarterback in No.4 Favre jersey, the Saints will reschedule their defense to stop the quarterback from passing, and the Vikings will have to get a better plan to protect Favre from attacks.

But it’s still three months before the real rematch happens, and players from the rival teams are already fighting, through twitter talks, for their respective own teams’ scheme. Saints safety Darren Sharper began the quarrel by saying that Favre’s ankle is already a marked target of Saints’ defensive men. That reminded the Vikings of the hits Favre received from Saints defensive players in last season’s NFC championship game. They surely won’t allow the same thing to happen in rematch, and Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe responded soon to say that Sharper should take care of his own knee as the recently surgically repaired part of Sharper’s body is also a marked target of Vikings’ offensive men.

The fight continued with Sharper’s tweet back and other Vikings’ counterattacks. We may predict that more Saints players would join the trash talk to keep it going on unless officials think it inappropriate and call for a stop.

Saints plan to sign new contract with RB Thomas

Some reports in early last week said that the New Orleans would sign a new contract with their running back Pierre Thomas within that week, but by so far, there has been no official confirmation of any new contract, and Pierre Thomas one of the team’s five restricted free agents.

However, according to latest reports, the Saints do have a plan to offer Thomas with a long-term deal. And the running back himself also appears confident with what he can get from the team. His confidence might have increased since offensive guard Jahri Evans received a lucrative seven-year contract. Rushing for six touchdowns and a career-best 793 yards during last season, Thomas has managed to prove himself a leading rusher in Saints jersey and a keystone role that the club is willing to pay big money for.

The Saints’ other four unsigned restricted free agents are offensive tackle Jammal Brown, fullback Kyle Eckel, safety Roman Harper and wide receiver Lance Moore. The team also has six unrestricted free agent yet to sign or give up before the 2010 season, and quarterback Mark Brunell has been already trying his chance with other teams during the offseason.

Saints wrapped up rookie camp with good impressions on rookies

On Monday afternoon, in a conclusion of the rookie minicamp, the New Orleans Saints coaching staff described the past weekend a “productive” one. Actually it would hardly have been an unproductive one as the camp was filled with 65 men including six rookies, 14 undrafted free agents, five members of last year’s practice squad and 40 try out players.

Among the heavily focused rookies, tight end Jimmy Graham was one of the most impressive guys. He was compared to many other all pros at his position, and the young man seemed to be a bit annoyed with the endless comparison.

"I've enjoyed every minute, it's special to be at Rookie Minicamp with the defending Super Bowl champions," Graham said. "Those are great players, hall of fame players, people that have opened the door and made it easier for me, but I'm just trying to be Jimmy Graham and take it one day at a time."

First-round pick Patrick Robinson expectedly received high praise from coach Payton, who said Robins had excellent ball skills and great speed. In one word, Payton tried to make people believe that their choice was right. As for other less impressive players in Saints jerseys, they are altogether described by Payton as in good shape and ready for opportunities, which are always enough in the Saints no matter where the players are picked.

Injury issues caused OT Brown to fall out of first round

With the last picks of all rounds in the 2010 NFL draft, the New Orleans Saints made every decision carefully to make sure that they got the best from the remaining picks. So when they used the 64th overall, the last pick of the second round, to draft Southern Cal offensive lineman Charles Brown, they indeed had a good reason.

The Saints believe that Brown, who received no call from any team during the first round, should have been picked in higher round and it was really fortunate for the team to still have such a choice available on board by the end of second round. However, if the Saints had good reason to have the young player put on Saints jersey, other teams must also have good reasons not to choose him.

According to recent reports, injuries were the major reason that caused Brown to fall out of the first round. Some reports said that Brown had a minor knee injury and some others said he pulled a hamstring at the USC Pro Day. The latter speculation was somewhat proved by Trojans athletic department officials, who confirmed that Brown did pull up his hamstring while running the 40-yard dash on pro day but it did not seem serious at that time.

So it is for sure that Brown is indeed having some problem with his leg, but the Saints do not appear to care much about it. Perhaps other teams simply worried a bit too much about the injury, and now it’s the Saints who finally add a powerful weapon on their offense.

Saints added rookie DE Sharpe to roster

Remaining undrafted when the three-day 2010 NFL draft ended on Saturday afternoon, former Texas Tech defensive end Brandon Sharpe finally received an contract offer from the New Orleans Saints on Monday, joining his former teammate in the Red Raiders, offensive guard Brandon Carter.

Actually, Sharpe was previously to be picked in the first round as the ESPN had ranked him as the 22nd best defensive end in the draft. He indeed deserves the rank with a latest school record of the most sacks in a season he made in his last college season. Having one solo sack in 2008 season, Sharpe burst out with 15 sacks in 2009 season, with four solo sacks ruing the Nebraska game. He also had four two-solo-sack games last season. Besides, the 15 sacks that totaled for a loss of 104 yards also ranked the second most on a national basis.

Sharpe and Carter are expected to make their first appearance in New Orleans Saints jerseys next week, when the team’s three-day rookie minicamp started on May 7 and ended on May 9. Both rookies will try their best to impress the coaches with hope of getting playing time in preseason and regular season.

Saints RB Bush is likely to be back next month

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush will hopefully come back earlier than scheduled. He finished his knee surgery in December and will be fully recovered by the start of training camp next month.

Bush participated in three of the five practices during the Saints' weekend minicamp, not being affected by any injury.

"I'm not trying to go out there and rip it up," Bush said. "But I am trying to get the feel back to cutting and all that stuff."

"I think he's found his niche," Saints coach Sean Payton said of Bush. "He's been really explosive for us as a returner and as a runner and a receiver; he's been a big part to us running the football. Prior to his injury last year, he was having a great year. Certainly, I think we have a good role for him, and he feels very comfortable with what we're doing."

Good news to Saints fans. We can expect that Bush will bring more cheers to the team this year.