New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton relocated his team to the somewhat-isolated Dixie Brewing Company to prepare for the 2020 NFL Draft.
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How are the New Orleans Saints responding to the coronavirus pandemic? Saints coach Sean Payton has experienced the infection more personally than most, having tested positive and self-isolating at home for two weeks before he received an update that he was in the clear on March 26. But the Saints organization is taking more thorough steps to protect its employees and their families, especially with the 2020 NFL Draft on the horizon.
Payton discussed the changes during a conference call with local media on Wednesday, including a move away from the team facility.
“Our meetings will take place and we’re kind of in a remote location,” Payton said. “We’re over at the Dixie Brewing Company actually, which is a brand new facility in New Orleans East and it’s really a way from any high traffic area and it’s also closed. We’re the only ones here.”
Dixie Brewing Company is another property belonging to Saints owner Gayle Benson, whose late husband Tom Benson — who Payton affectionately called “Mr. B” — purchased and renovated in recent years. Based in an industrial park far from residential and commercial districts, it’s a secluded, sanitized building in which the Saints brass can congregate. Team security staff will help turn away any uninvited visitors, but odds are slim anyone will travel so far out of their way as it is.
That’s as opposed to the more-cramped quarters in the team’s Metairie offices and training facility, or the Benson Tower in the Central Business District. Payton and the Saints considered both venues but agreed that it would be easier to follow guidelines from the Center for Disease Control at the brewery. The goal is to keep staff isolated and prevent the potential spread of infections, so its large conference room makes for an ideal location.
Payton shared an example of what draft meetings now look like. Typically these are crowded conferences in the Saints “war room” in their offices, stuffing scouts, coaches, and front office executives shoulder-to-shoulder to preview this year’s prospects. But they’re taking a different approach with everyone’s safety in mind.
“Those are kind of set up a little differently this year, with all our scouts Skyping in, teleconferencing in,” Payton continued. “Mickey (Loomis), myself, Jeff (Ireland), with the position coach, maybe a few others, are in a large meeting room spread out with a lot of monitors. Depending on who we’re reading, what player group we’re reading, different people Skyping in.”
Payton added that the Saints plan to keep everyone physically in the room at least six feet apart, checking their temperatures before entering as per CDC recommendations. While some position coaches and regional scouts may rotate in depending on each day’s topic, Payton expects the process to largely feature face-to-face conversations only between himself, the Saints general manager (Loomis), and the assistant general manager (Ireland).
These meetings will continue for almost two weeks as the Saints work to finalize their “big board” of ranked prospects and decide on a draft strategy. While the team is normally one of the NFL’s most aggressive in the draft, frequently trading up to acquire talented players like Alvin Kamara, Marcus Davenport, Erik McCoy, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Payton also suggested that a scarcity of the usual data points could lead them to a more passive approach.
“The grade and the system and the way it’s set up on the board remains the same,” Payton mused. “But you may not be able to clarify or clean up some of the question marks you normally would in each year. How do we philosophically then approach the draft this year? I think it’s a great question. You might be more conservative relative to, aversion to taking a risk if you don’t have the information that you’re looking for.”
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