Saints rookies show up at minicamp out of shape

By Chris Neubauer (Pro Football Weekly)
May 18, 2007


It looks like the NFL has another off-the-field problem on its hands.

This one has nothing to do with strip clubs, guns or drunken driving, thankfully.

The NFL has an eating disorder. Too much food consumption, to be exact, and it’s causing rookies to show up at their first minicamps overweight and out of shape.

Take Saints first-round pick Robert Meachem. Expectations were sky-high for the former Tennessee wideout when he arrived at the Saints’ practice facility last weekend. He was drafted as Joe Horn’s replacement, plain and simple. Sure, he must beat out veterans Devery Henderson and Terrance Copper for Horn’s old post, but Henderson and Copper are speed bumps, not roadblocks.

Meachem was supposed to dazzle from Day One. Instead, he wheezed.

Meachem blames all the pre-draft visits he made to NFL teams for padding his belly and getting him off the workout wagon. He visited nine teams before the draft. For each team, he would perform an on-the-field workout during the day. And at night, the teams would wine and dine him. Nine cities. Nine restaurants. He made a rookie mistake: He dined too much.

I think each team was testing Meachem with its fancy meals. He probably would have been drafted earlier if he had uttered these three words: Hold the dessert.

"I took a lot of visits with teams before the draft, and everyplace you go, they give you a big meal,” Meachem confessed. “For me, I tried to work out when I could, but I don't think I got enough workouts in."

In Meachem’s defense, sources tell me that it was unseasonably warm on Day One of Saints minicamp.

Saints fans can take solace in this fact: WR Marques Colston showed up at his first rookie minicamp out of shape and overweight. Colston performed so poorly that he feared he would not receive an invitation to the full-squad minicamp the next month.

But at least Colston, the runner-up for Rookie of the Year honors last season, arrived last May with lower expectations. He was a seventh-round pick, after all.

To add injury to insult, Meachem also tweaked his ankle on Day Two of minicamp. Reggie Bush can sympathize with Meachem. Last year’s first-round pick also suffered an injury at his first minicamp. Bush injured his hamstring.

“I got hurt stretching,” Bush said.

But rotund Robert wasn’t the biggest bust at the Saints’ minicamp. That honor goes to undrafted rookie Walter Thomas. You’ve probably heard Thomas’ story. He is a physical marvel — a nimble 6-foot-5, 375-pound behemoth. Thomas was kicked out of Oklahoma State after one year and wound up at Northwest Mississippi Community College, where he played in two games. Not your average Sean Payton-era Saint.

Thomas completed 12 minutes of practice before taking off his helmet and calling it a day.

“He had a brief career," Payton said.

Persistence pays off

Undrafted rookie QB Tyler Palko created more positive buzz at the Saints’ minicamp than his new teammate, Meachem.

First, the reasons why Palko wasn't drafted: size and arm strength. Palko is generously listed at 6 feet, 1 inch. But an eyeball measurement from my sources in the Saints’ locker room reveals that Palko is a smidge shorter than Drew Brees, who is listed at 6 feet. The southpaw Palko also throws more change-ups than fastballs, just like Brees.

The story goes that Sean Payton called Palko sometime during the fifth round of the draft and told the former Pitt Panther that the Saints would like to sign him if he went undrafted. Palko drew interest from several other teams after the draft, but he chose the Saints because Payton was the only head coach to call him.

Payton likes that Palko is a coach’s son. And he doesn’t mind Palko’s lack of arm strength because accuracy and acumen are the most important attributes in Payton’s version of the West Coast offense.

The Saints needed a developmental prospect at quarterback after carrying only Brees and 37-year-old Jamie Martin on their roster last year.

Payton is an old hand at turning castoffs into Pro Bowlers. He is largely credited for molding Tony Romo, an undrafted free agent from Eastern Illinois, into the Pro Bowl quarterback he became last season in Dallas.

I’m hearing that Palko could be next.

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Wow! truly it's feast or famine in nola! Gotta Love the Jones story: 12 Mins!!! 12 MINS!!!!! what the heck!?!?!? Love Sean Peyton's sense of Humor as well...(a "Brief career" is putting it mildly!!!!