We've come to an end to practice here in the Metairie facility and the final day was dedicated to third downs and nickel and dime defensive packages.

From what I saw, the defense played well today, making several stops during third-down situational.

Honestly, not much stood out to me this morning. The defense appeared to be blitzing more than I remember from the past two seasons.

And in the dime package, instead of sticking with one linebacker and four down linemen, it appears Gregg Williams is going with six defensive backs, two linebackers and three down linemen. I'm not sure that's a big deal, though it may mean even less pressure on the QB in those situations.

Post-practice locker room sighting:
RB Pierre Thomas was sporting a soft compression sleeve on his left forearm. He said it was there to keep the swelling down.

He also said the shock of the injury was the main problem yesterday as his arm went numb for a second.

He did joke that hopefully the hit from DT Sedrick Ellis broke up some scar tissue from when he had surgery.

Fight count:
Sunday morning: 0
Entire Minicamp: 3

Participation:
Reggie Bush, after taking Saturday off, worked during team drills.

So, too, did WR Marques Colston, who didn't work out either Friday or Saturday.

Dan Morgan (calf), Dan Campbell (knee), Darnell Dinkins (ankle), Randall Gay (sore knee), Adrian Arrington (hamstring) and Scott Shanle (calf) all missed. Gay, Arrington and Shanle rode exercise bikes.

TE Jeremy Shockey, by the way, was back with the first team. My guess is with two fewer tight ends out there (Dinkins and Campbell are hurt), the coaches are just rotating players not based on specific teams.

Why you do minicamp:
Players aren't in pads during minicamp. So why is it so important. Let's let Sean Payton tell us.

"I mentioned earlier that the mental aspect of it is tremendous because it's a dry run really for what they're going to get in training camp when they do have pads on," Payton said. "Where to be, where to align, the depths, techniques and all the specifics as it pertains to the scheme that we're using on either side of the ball and in the kicking game. Secondly, there are a lot of timing issues that you begin working on right now. We put some new things in every year at this time of the year and take a look at them and see if we like them or not."

Tomorrow's story today:
Defensive ends - if Charles Grant and Will Smith are out for the first four games, who the heck steps in?

Upcoming this afternoon:
WWL-TV's unofficial two-deep chart. It's something.

The rest of the story
OTA's continue the next two weeks and though not mandatory, my guess is it will be attended by most of the players, if not all.

Once OTA's are finished, they break for a few weeks. Camp begins the final Thursday of July, or what we call July 30.

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