New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Conference Call with New Orleans Media
Thursday, December 19, 2019

How do you think Kenny Vaccaro has kind of fit in over there in Nashville with the Titans since signing with them?
"He's done real well. They give you a lot of looks defensively. Both those safeties have played exceptionally well. It's fun to watch him on tape."

A.J. Brown, their rookie wide receiver, has been coming on pretty strong lately. What kind of stands out about him?
"The thing you see's the unusual combination of size (and) physicality, but he has sudden feet. His transition and his ability to separate, matched with his size. The game last week, the Texans had trouble handling him period, (Ryan) Tannehill back and forth. There were, it seemed like in one series, four or five plays (where he made a difference. He's a physical player that I think has real good transitional in route acumen. This guy is someone that can really sink his hips, get in and out of cuts. He's an accomplished route runner."

Now that you've had the chance to go back and rewatch Dwayne Washington's punt deflection, what did you see on that play when you're watching it again?"It's an effort play. We've had a few of these, we're not even rushing sometimes and it happened with Taysom a few weeks ago when a player leverages a guy blocking and it's kind of contagious. All of a sudden guys are trying to make a play within the framework of what we do."

There's been three this year. What does that say about the effort?
"It started a few years ago and all of a sudden when Mike (Westhoff) came in last year, two years ago, we had all of a sudden a spike in how we were carrying ourselves, how we were playing and last year (it was) the same way. Darren (Rizzi) has come in now and these guys have a confidence about them. They understand the significance of the field position."

With Mike Thomas coming up on Marvin Harrison's record, what do you remember about him as a player?
"Number one, they (Indianapolis Colts) were in a (offensive) system where a lot of the times he was the (wide) receiver to the right. In our league, you don't see a lot of right and left receivers. You see strong and weak. He was a fantastic threat down the field. He was someone that had really, really strong hands so he could catch the ball with his feet moving. He wasn't jumping to catch it. He was comfortable with the in cuts. He was a very good double move route runner. He was smart. He was one of the great ones."