New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees
Post-Practice Media Availability
Thursday, August 18, 2016
How does a joint practice like this help the team?
"It gives you the opportunity to go up against a new team, personnel and scheme. It forces you to have to maybe do some things that you would not be doing if you were going up against your own defense, from a scheme standpoint or making certain adjustments based upon who you're going up against. I like the challenge of that and I think it is good for our team."
How is it coming back to Texas with you having family here?
"I've got family all around Texas – Austin, here in Houston and East Texas. It is always nice to come back to where I grew up."
It is not like you get to play against (Houston Texans QB) Brock Osweiler, but did you have any takeaways from him?
"It is hard to tell. It is limited time. I meant to have the chance to just run over and say hey to him. (We're) playing on our field and they are on theirs. If they're going, we're waiting, and then we just kind of quickly switch. There wasn't a whole lot of time to socialize. Obviously, I was able to watch what he accomplished last year in Denver and I was very impressed by that. He's got a great opportunity here with a great team around him in a great system."
You talked about breaking up the monotony and going from West Virginia to New England, back to West Virginia and then now to Houston; how has this camp been (with) moving around like this?
"I think we knew what it was coming in. I think we have always been, I feel, pretty good at making adjustments or being able to plan accordingly. At the end of the day, you want to do what is best for your team. I felt like getting away once again this year to West Virginia was what was best for our team. I felt like we got great work done there. I felt like our joint practices with New England were really good. I felt like there were a lot of takeaways from that and from that first preseason game, things that we can improve upon. I felt like today was a little sloppy. I don't want to give ourselves any excuses but you travel here to a different environment. Bottom line, I think there are going to be a lot of things on that tape today that we can improve upon. We'll work on doing that tomorrow and then we'll play these guys."
Can you talk about the practice with the Texans today?
"We played a great scheme. Romeo Crennel has a great scheme and I think those guys played well. I think it starts up front. Their front seven is able to do the pressure that they provide and the multiple looks that they give you. They're very solid in the secondary all the way around"
Even with J.J. Watt not practicing?
"Obviously he's an impact player, make no mistake. But they have a lot of impact players out there too."
Would you consider this a physical camp?
"It prepares you for the regular season obviously. It tells you a lot about certain guys, maybe guys you are trying to find out about and guys who could have an impact on your team and again, at the joint practices you receive some different looks. The Texans are a big, physical football team, so the opportunity to practice against these guys and play against them will be a benefit as well."
Are there some things you can and can't do working against this defense?
"It's just a different scheme. It's a whole different scheme. It's a different front and a different secondary structure. Maybe they're playing the same coverage but they're playing a it a different way. There are different nuances to defense where not everybody's doing it the same way and not everybody has the same personnel either. It's looking at the cornerbacks, identifying what they're doing, identifying the matchups and throwing it to the open guy."
Sean Payton talked about the effort of this team and how the makeup of it stood out in West Virginia. Can you contrast the makeup of this locker room as opposed to prior years?
"No, it's its own. I think ever since we established the foundation of our team and the culture and focusing on the character of the locker room and how it would lead to success. I think it's just been a new journey with a bunch of new guys. I'm excited to see where it takes us."
What have you seen of Daniel Lasco?
"I've been impressed with him. He's a tough, physical runner. He's from the Woodlands right by here outside of Houston. I think he's done a really, really good job of whatever we ask him to do. I just described him as a tough, hard-nosed football player, whatever you ask him to do, run the ball, block, run down on special teams, he's willing. You get the feeling he just loves football. That's a good thing."
