<span>The New Orleans Saints went through the paces of one afternoon practice on the campus of Millsaps College. The practice ran from 3:40 until roughly 5:35 pm and the team implemented limited game-planning for Thursday evening's first preseason game of the season (at Arizona, 7:00 p.m. CT, ESPN, Saints' Radio Network).   

The team will have a walk-through practice on Wednesday morning beginning at 9:30 until about 10:15 before final preparations and then a chartered flight from Jackson to Phoenix in the early afternoon.

Head Coach Sean Payton said following practice that he will be holding numerous players out of the first preseason game, including RB Deuce McAllister, CB Mike McKenzie. S Josh Bullocks, LB Jonathan Vilma, WR Pierre Thomas, TE Jeremy Shockey, WR Marques Colston, DT Brian Young and rookie CB Tracy Porter.

Payton said he is encouraged with each of their comebacks from various injuries and that he is expecting nearly all of the players to be able to practice on Saturday morning when the team resumes practices.

Payton said the plan is to get the starters roughly 20 plays of action in the game on Thursday and then to rotate in the second and third team players.