The Saints held their final practice prior to their contest against the San Diego Chargers Wednesday morning in the team's indoor facility.

NEXT UP: The squad will hold a walk-through on Thursday and battle the Chargers Friday night at 7 pm in the Superdome.

CAPTAIN CUT:Among the five cuts the team made on Tuesday was last year's special teams captain Troy Evans.

Evans joined the team as an unrestricted free agent in 2007 after spending the first five seasons of his career (2002-2006) with the Houston Texans. The product of the University of Cincinnati posted 54 tackles on special teams the past three seasons, and has played in 119 NFL games, with 123 special teams tackles to his credit and three forced fumbles.

"It really had nothing to do with the way our special teams were playing," said Payton. "In fairness to Troy, and I have said this before, we are rolling a lot of guys through the kicking game to get evaluations. There are two separate entities to it and certainly it was a tough decision."

PORTER RETURNS:DB Tracy Porterreturned to practice on Thursday after sitting out Wednesday with minor knee injury.

NEW LB:Payton announced the team signed K.C. Asioduon Wednesday. The six-foot-two linebacker played for the Rams last year after signing with the squad as an undrafted free agent out of Central Oklahoma. 

CASSERLY ATTENDS PRACTICE:Former Houston Texans general manager and current CBS analyst Charley Casserly attended Thursday morning's practice. CBS will nationally televise the Saints and Chargers contest Friday night.