ARLINGTON, Texas — The New Orleans Saints are practicing at AT&T Stadium until at least Wednesday, head coach Sean Payton said Monday.
“This seemed fairly quick, and it made a lot of sense,” Payton said during a conference call with reporters Monday.
“You know, the stadium is wide open here for the next three days. Just from a logistics standpoint, it should work out pretty well.”
On Friday, the Saints announced the cancelation of their final preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals. The team arrived in North Texas Saturday evening, before Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana Sunday.
“I think the safety of everyone involved, in being able to get to a location ahead of the storm and ahead of landfall was critical for us,” Payton said.
The head coach said he is unaware of any damage to the Superdome, practice facility, his home, or any of the players’ homes.
“I think every one of us...would love a picture of what it looks like outside of our home. And I'm sure there's gonna be damage to roofs, damage to windows, the external portions of homes,” Payton said.
Payton said around 120 of the players' family members made the trip to North Texas. While this is a positive, the head coach said he doesn’t “like the environment” of having to make roster cuts by Tuesday with family members present.
Payton said they “fully anticipate” starting the regular season with their Sept. 12 home game against Green Bay, but he’s unsure of where that game will be played.
“Look, there's a good chance when we start up Monday talking about a week from today, that there's a good chance that's going to be somewhere other than Metairie.”