Jake Haener's quiet confidence shines through

Good morning, and welcome to the Saturday, July 27 edition of the Saints Insider newsletter. We're coming to you from sunny Southern California, and as you're reading this the Saints are probably in the midst of their fourth training camp practice. Let's get into what we've seen so far. 

"No fear"

This training camp represents a big opportunity for quarterback Jake Haener. The Saints let Jameis Winston walk in free agency, creating an opening for the No. 2 quarterback job, but they also selected promising signal caller Spencer Rattler in the draft. 

With his rookie experience helping out, Haener has looked extremely comfortable in new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's offense, and as columnist Rod Walker pointed out, Friday was easily his best performance of camp so far. As Rod wrote, Haener's calm confidence is evident on the field. 

But, as he's reached this moment in his career, Haener is also navigating a difficult situation personally: Shortly before camp, he was diagnosed with a form of skin cancer that is rare for someone as young as him. It is not considered life threatening, but Haener is taking no chances with the diagnosis and will soon visit with a doctor to discuss next steps. 

Shaheed 'ready' for opportunity

Take a peek at Rashid Shaheed's career highlight reel, and a few things can immediately be considered true: 

1. He's really, really fast. Even among fellow pro football players. 
2. He knows how to use that speed to win deep downfield. 

But the Saints and Shaheed both believe there's more there, and as the receiver enters Year 3 of his career, he's being trusted with an expanded role in the offense. 

Shaheed has been putting in the mental work this offseason, learning several different positions in the offense as he anticipates a larger workload. He can't wait to show what he can do with the bigger opportunity. 

Nice day for the offense

Beat writer Matt Paras tackled our daily practice observations, and he saw an offense that won the day with a series of impressive downfield throws and catches. 

From Paras' notebook: "Across all team drills (7-on-7s and 11-on-11s), (Quarterback Derek) Carr went 9 of 11 with the two incompletions the result of a drop and a throwaway under pressure."

It wasn't all good news for the Saints, as star cornerback Marshon Lattimore left the field early with a hip flexor injury. 

Want to see some training camp yourself? Check it out through the lens of our photographer Sophie Germer via her daily photo gallery. 

Thanks, as always, for your readership. We've got a lot more coming your way from California. 

Cheers, 

Luke Johnson