Emotions run high. Players are fighting for their jobs. Rookies want to prove themselves.
These are competitive, professional athletes at the end of the day. There’s a multitude of reasons why things may get heated during a practice, and that happened during Saints practice on Thursday. The most notable part of their Thursday scuffle was actually who was part of ending it.
Saints’ Taliese Fuaga helped break up practice fight on Thursday
Something I noted today: During the scuffle, it was rookie Taliese Fuaga who was pulling Trevor Penning away from the pile and calming him down. Thought that said a lot about his maturity.
— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) August 8, 2024
Katherine Terrell notes Fudge’s maturity. It would have been easy for a young player, like himself, to get caught up in the moment and escalate the situation. Instead, Fuaga got involved to get Trevor Penning out of the middle of it in order to calm down the feisty lineman.
Penning has always been a player who wears his emotions on his sleeve, so Fuaga may actually be able to help him improve his “cool” to stay calm going forward, even during actual games for New Orleans.
Regardless, Fuaga’s role in the fight only backs up what other players have noticed about him throughout this offseason.
He’s collected for such a young player. Erik McCoy recently called Fuaga the best rookie offensive lineman he has seen since he arrived in New Orleans.
Saints OL coach John Benton has seen Fuaga’s physical and mental makeup as well. He’s not like every rookie OL that enters the pros, whatsoever.
“He’s all in. He’s kind of been amazing in terms of – from a rookie standpoint – the amount of knowledge he’s able to take in and apply. … It has been absolutely outstanding, probably the best I’ve ever been around.” — A to Z Sports
Taliese Fuaga didn’t have his best day on Wednesday, but I was impressed with his response during today’s practice. Still uneven in team reps, but a little more consistent and had some great individual reps. Check out these reps against Young (1/2): pic.twitter.com/WBlg7JSg5R
— Matthew Paras (@Matthew_Paras) August 2, 2024
The Saints need Fuaga to find a level of consistency in his first year in the NFL. He’s set to start at LT for them this season.
