3 Saints we want to see burst onto the scene in preseason opener

The New Orleans Saints open their 2022 preseason on Saturday evening. These three players are guys the fans would like to see pop on the field. 

Football season is finally here, my friends! After the New Orleans Saints narrowly missed the playoffs in the 2021 season with a 9-8 record despite all that was thrown their way, the black and gold are ready to prove the naysayers wrong in 2022.

While the preseason isn’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things, it helps guys either low on the depth chart or who might find themselves on the roster bubble prove that they’re deserving of making the team.

Here are three Saints who we’d like to see have big games against the Texans on Saturday night.

Trevor Penning

Training camp has shown Saints fans exactly why some teams were afraid of spending a first-round pick on Trevor Penning. The Northern Iowa product had three straight days of practice where he got physical with a defensive player and the third day resulted in him getting kicked out altogether.

Fortunately, Penning hasn’t done anything like that again since getting kicked out, which is a good sign but I’m really looking forward to seeing the rookie in action on Saturday. Will some of that nastiness we saw on display in camp shine through during the preseason opener? I sure as heck hope so.

Penning is currently in a position battle for the starting left tackle job and James Hurst is probably the favorite to win the job due to his veteran status. I’d love to see Penning display some of that feistiness against the Texans though.

Adam Trautman

As of this writing, we don’t know how long the starters are going to play or if they’ll end up playing much at all. If they do take the field, one of the players I’m most excited to see on the field is Adam Trautman.

Entering the third year of his career, Trautman has to show why the team once spent a third-round pick on him. He’s been a pretty big disappointment to this point in his career but there’s still a chance for him to make amends and show he can be a TE1-caliber player in the offense.

If Trautman were to have a few big catches and maybe dash into the end zone during the preseason opener, that’d be pretty fun. It’d be nice to see him have a nice performance and get the fans talking about what could be with him at the helm.

Payton Turner

It was unfortunate that Payton Turner only appeared in five games as a rookie because we’ve seen in training camp how explosive this guy can be when given the chance. According to the unofficial depth chart, Turner is third in line behind Marcus Davenport and Carl Granderson and that should mean we get to see plenty of him on Saturday.

The hope is that we see that burst that inspired the Saints to take him in the first round last year. He’s shown that swagger in camp to this point but seeing him put that production onto the field, even if it’s a preseason game, would ease the mind of fans as we inch closer to the start of the regular season.

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Which New Orleans Saints are you the most excited to see pop during Saturday’s game against the Texans?