The main change with the special teams is that Bradford Banta will be the new coordinator for the 2017 season. A player in the NFL for 11 years, Banta now enters his 10th year as an NFL assistant and first year with the New Orleans Saints. Coaching previously for the Lions and Redskins, the Baton Rouge native has had success everywhere he has been.

Banta recently spoke about his vision for the upcoming 2017 Saints training camp presented by Verizon:

"Improve in every area. We've set forth a plan to really just start working on the base fundamentals and just get that ground floor established."

The Saints will have a new long snapper this season as the Saints have parted ways with Justin Drescher. Newly signed free agent Thomas Gafford will battle with Chase Dominguez and others for the spot as the long snapper. Gafford is a 12-year NFL veteran and Dominguez is a rookie out of Utah.

Coach Sean Payton spoke about the position after OTAs:

"We felt like (we wanted to make a change) for a couple reasons, from a coverage standpoint and also from a protection standpoint.

"We pay close attention to and we're going to be working a few different guys out."