Deja vu? Saints taking training camp on the road

Is it 2006 all over again?
Then first-year head coach Sean Payton took his training camp to Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. That summer in Mississippi featured very little rain and lots of heat. You could feel the heat running through your shorts during the afternoon practice on artificial turf at the stadium.

That camp set the tone for a season that ended in the NFC Championship Game. Eight years later, Payton is looking for every advantage, big and small.

Part of the Saints’ 2014 training camp will be in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. The climate is temperate. Average high for July and August is 82 degrees at the prestigious Greenbrier Resort, where the Saints will relocate.

Payton isn’t the first Saints coach to believe that moving camp out of New Orleans is a good thing. In 2000, Jim Haslett took the Saints to Nicholls State in Thibodaux. Throughout a season that included a first-ever playoff victory, Haslett and his team cited the work done during camp as a springboard for a turnaround.

The next year, the Saints again trained in Thibodaux and promptly went 7-9.

The 1992 Saints, who won a then-franchise high 12 games, trained in LaCrosse, Wis. So did the 1996 Saints, who won three. Head coach Jim
Mora resigned in mid-season.

Football players and coaches win games, and Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis continue a dramatic roster overhaul. As of mid-March, only 11 players who were on the final 2011 roster remain on the team. That team lost in the NFC divisional playoffs to San Francisco in January 2012.

Zero linebackers from that final roster remain. Only one defensive back is still a Saint: 2010 first-round pick cornerback Patrick Robinson. The Saints have undergone an extreme makeover.

Last year’s draft yielded four potential starters and cornerback Keenan Lewis in free agency. The supposedly cap-stretched Saints made a statement in the first hours of free agency, signing free safety Jairus Byrd from the Buffalo Bills.

Maybe it can be 2009 all over again. Back then, the Saints had a young and talented roster infused with veteran leadership.

Linebacker Jonathan Vilma was the glue for the defense. Safety Darren Sharper thrived when given the opportunity to roam the field and create turnovers.

Now, with another outstanding draft, the Saints will have quickly retooled their roster in time for another Super Bowl run led by quarterback Drew Brees.

The potential road for the Saints to the Super Bowl in Arizona is making an unexpected turn – that is, to the Allegheny Mountains.

Moments after the Saints announced the move, I spoke with a reporter in the Greenbrier area. What’s the closest airport?

“Roanoke, about 90 minutes away.”

Who Dats, get out your GPS.

Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected].