It almost looked like the New Orleans Saints were about to rustle some feathers at Tuesday’s training camp practice. Newly-signed kicker Brett Maher was in the building, but he needed a jersey number — and specialists like him are restricted to wearing everything from Nos. 1 through 19. Of those possibilities, all but Nos. 8 and 9 were unclaimed.
And those are, well, accounted for. Archie Manning wore No. 8 back in the day as New Orleans’ first franchise player. Drew Brees made No. 9 his signature during the team’s most successful era. Neither of those jerseys are going to be made available for a temp hire.