Saints 9/29 Practice Notebook
The Saints were on the practice field at their indoor facility for over two hours today in preparations for Sunday's game vs. the Carolina Panthers
Carney Happy To Help:The Saints re-signed K John Carneyto supplement the special teams position. Carney is no stranger for New Orleans, as this will be his eighth season with the club in a distinguished 21-year playing career.
The oldest player in the NFL to currently don a uniform, is the third leading scorer in NFL record books with 2,044 points. Having appeared in an even 300 games, Carney is one of only six NFL players to have appeared in 300 contests joining former Saint Morten Andersen(377), Gary Anderson(346), Jeff Feagles(352), the recently passed George Blanda(325) and 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Rice(302).
As a Saint, Carney has appeared in 106 games and is the club's second all-time leading scorer with 661 points. As a Saint, he has made 82.7% of his field goal attempts. In 11 games in 2009, he made 13-of-17 field goal attempts. For the final five games of the regular season and the postseason, Garrett Hartleyhandled placekicking duties and Carney served as a kicking consultant and mentor for Hartley. Carney will once again serve that role as head coach Sean Payton, who evaluated both Carney and free agent Kris Brownin a workout on Tuesday before signing the Notre Dame alum,* *has said that each week he will evaluate the performances of the two in practice before deciding who will kick. For Carney, who considers Hartley to be a good friend, he looks forward to returning to the Saints as well as working with him in practice.
"Every good golfer needs a good caddy. We worked well together last year. I think we both benefited from competing against and working with each other and we will continue to do."
In addition to his skins on the wall and kicking ability, Payton is excited about the attributes that Carney will bring to the specialists group both on and off the field.
"The one thing about Johns is his experience with the process. He helps all of us when it comes to the snap, hold, kick; that's a strength of his. When you have kicked as long as he has – he's my age – that's pretty important and it's helpful."
Roster Moves:In order to accommodate the addition of Carney, the Saints waived WR Adrian Arrington. The club also made a practice squad transaction, signing T Jermey Parnelland releasing OL Jacob Bender. Parnell spent the entire 2009 season on the Saints practice squad went to training camp with the Black and Gold before spending the first part of the 2010 regular season with the Miami Dolphins on their active roster.
Injury Report:RB Reggie Bush(hamstring) and LB Anthony Waters(hamstring) did not participate in practice after missing all of last week. New additions to the report this week are S Roman Harper(hamstring) and RB Pierre Thomas(ankle), who did not participate. S Usama Young(quad) was limited.
