Gabe Nabers’ versatility on display during Bolts’ first training camp practice

With a new offense comes new philosophies.

Anthony Lynn and his staff are now gone and the Brandon Staley era is here along with new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. The Saints have been avid users of the fullback position with John Kuhn being a prominent name in that area for them in recent years, but now that Lombardi has the reigns of his own offense it remained to be seen if he’d value the position enough to give it, or Nabers himself, a respectable role.

After one day of practice — and yes, it’s just one practice — it looks like Nabers will be moving around quite a bit across various formations. According to Tyler Schoon, one of the hosts of the Guilty As Charged podcast, Nabers saw several opportunities to begin plays away from the backfield.

On multiple plays, Nabers actually lined up as a receiver on the outside of the formation. This was actually something we saw this past season with Stephen Anderson but it speaks to Nabers’ progression that he’s getting the nod in this personnel group over one of the other tight ends on the team.

Overall it’s nice to see another former undrafted free agent earn a role on this team. On the very first play of the team’s seven-on-seven period, Nabers was out there with the offense in 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end) running routes. After catching two touchdown passes a year ago, don’t be surprised to see Nabers more involved in the team’s red zone offense going forward.