New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Conference Call with New Orleans Media
Thursday, October 19, 2017

What have you seen from Taysom Hill this season so far?
"He's received practice work with the look team. He's someone who has a live arm, a guy we want to develop and keep working with."

Has Ted Ginn Jr.  been able to do some things that have surprised you thus far?
"Ted has played a long time in this league. We try to feature and do some things that we think he does extremely well. Last week, (on) the third down shallow cross (route), he makes a tremendous play. It's just constantly looking for ways where you can get him in those positions that benefit his skillset."

Is that also true as a punt returner, where you guys are just looking for ways to try to get him the ball?
"Absolutely, I think he still has that burst, you can see the speed with him and he has pretty good football awareness as well."

What are some of the things you can do out of that three defensive lineman look that maybe you can't do with four down lineman?
"It's nothing different than (when) you can create a four-man rush, you can pressure from one side or the other much like a 3-4 front. It's just another package, I would say nothing new or unusual, it just creates some decision or indecision hopefully by the offense, in regards to how they're going to protect it, who are they going to put the five lineman on and you can move guys to spots. It's a little blurrier picture pre-snap, I would say possibly for the QB and it gives you some pressure flexibility."

How do you think Ryan Ramczyk has been playing?
"I think he's been playing real well. He's had to play over on the left and on the right. He's been steady. I've been real pleased."

How tough is that going side to side as he has, even in the middle of games?
"I think that's challenging. I think maybe more challenging is coming in and having the success that he's having as a rookie. If you're around him and you interview him, you get a sense of his demeanor, he's been in this three or four years, at least I think. I've been really pleased with what we've seen from him so early right now."

Mike Nolan, as we approach the midway point of the season, how big of an impact has he had with the linebacker position group?
"He coaches them, that's his group. I think he's had some change obviously with Alex's (Anzalone) injury. I think that he's a veteran, sharp coach with experience and I think he's helped that room and helped Dennis (Allen) and our team in a number of ways."

How pleased are you with his efforts?
"Very much so. Guys are working hard."

Can Michael Mauti slip into (Nate) Stupar's role in theory? Is that a role he's played before?
"I think the most significant thing with Mike would be that his workout (on Monday) was outstanding. He's in great shape. You can tell he's been training. Coming into training camp, it wasn't that he wasn't in great shape, he had gone through a core muscle procedure, sports hernia. To some extent though, we'll need him. We'll need him in the kicking game. We'll need him potentially as a backup linebacker. When you get thin, he's someone who is familiar with what we're doing but most importantly when he finished working out, I said, 'if we're not interested in signing him, we should never bring him in for another workout because it's not going to be any better than that.' I was encouraged with the shape he was in. He'll play in that role to some degree."

What are some of the things that Davante Adams does for them that make him a tough matchup?
"He's explosive. He has strong traffic hands. You see him catch the ball properly. He is really playing with a lot of confidence. He has size and his catch radius (is impressive). But I think he has exceptional feet. You can see suddenness in his routes."