SAINTS DON'T EXPECT JENKINS IN CAMP ANYTIME SOON (8:39 p.m. ET)
Saints top draft choice Malcolm Jenkins did not report to training camp with the rest of the team and general manager Mickey Loomis said he was pessimistic that Jenkins would be signed to a contract any time soon.
Loomis said that he has not spoken with Jenkins' agent, Ben Dogra, since last week, when the Saints made their initial offer to the cornerback out of Ohio State.
Head coach Sean Payton said fourth-round pick Stanley Arnoux, who is out for the year with an Achilles tendon injury, is the only other player who did not report to the team's headquarters in suburban New Orleans.
The Saints moved training camp back to the New Orleans area this season after holding it in Jackson, Miss., for three summers.
-- The Associated Press
MOST TITANS SHOW UP TO CAMP EARLY (7:20 p.m. ET)
The Titans are apparently very eager to get back to work. The team that wasted the NFL's best record and home-field advantage with an opening playoff loss faced a voluntary reporting deadline Thursday for training camp, and coach Jeff Fisher said about 95 percent of his Titans showed up early for conditioning tests.
An experienced Tennessee squad also showed Fisher they deserve the relatively easy training camp schedule. Fisher is opening camp a week later than he could have because of playing Buffalo in the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 9, and he currently has planned only two days with two full team sessions.
"They have high expectations. They've worked well this offseason and ready to come in and compete," Fisher said. "I'm especially pleased right now with the condition level of this football team, the commitment. I talked about this last year how important that was. They've pushed themselves even further. Their condition tests were excellent this morning. With that being said, we're looking forward to this."
The Titans insisted throughout the offseason that they aren't looking back at 2008 when they went 13-3 before a 13-10 divisional loss to Baltimore. Their focus has been on Sept. 10 when they open the NFL season in prime-time against the defending champion Steelers, a team Tennessee routed late last season.
Tennessee will practice only 11 times before leaving for Canton. Not that playing time will be a problem with five preseason games -- most since 1994 when still called the Houston Oilers. Fisher said they will play that opening game to win in honor of owner Bud Adams and the franchise's 50th anniversary as an original American Football League member.
-- The Associated Press
NINERS PREPARE FOR INTENSE CAMP UNDER SINGLETARY (7:12 p.m. ET)
Mike Singletary's plan for two-a-day practices in full pads from the get-go has his players just a bit nervous heading into the coach's first training camp in charge of the 49ers.
Linebacker Takeo Spikes began training twice a day five weeks ahead of time rather than his typical two weeks. Left tackle Joe Staley and the rest of the offensive linemen seriously took their workouts up a notch, too.
"Ready for it to be over," Spikes joked Thursday, when veteran players reported to the team's training complex in advance of the first practice Saturday.
That's when the real grind begins. There's no day off in the practice schedule before the team's exhibition opener Aug. 14 at home against the Broncos.
"I expect it to be physical and intense," said Staley, recently rewarded with a six-year contract extension. "If you know Singletary, he's known for his intensity. ... I feel as strong as I've ever felt in my career."
"I want winners," screams a billboard just up the freeway from team headquarters, featuring a picture of a serious Singletary with arms crossed.
-- The Associated Press
BRADY PARTICIPATES AT PATS CAMP (6:23 p.m. ET)
Tom Brady was back on the first day of New England's training camp, taking snaps just as he did before he was knocked off the field for the 2008 season by a left knee injury in the first quarter of the opener.
He dropped back and threw a 20-yard pass that bounced off Ray Ventrone's hand, a sideline pass that just eluded Wes Welker and a long completion over the middle to seventh-round draft choice Julian Edelman. He made handoffs and faked others.
"Any time you have your best player on the team back, it's a great thing," Welker said.
Brady, who is expected to talk to reporters Friday, normally doesn't play much in the exhibition season, which starts in two weeks on Aug. 13 at Philadelphia. Coach Bill Belichick wouldn't say how much he plans on using Brady in this summer's games.
"We've thought more about this afternoon's practice and what we have to do there," he said. "We have a lot of short-term goals and are very shortsighted here."
-- The Associated Press
BENGALS READY FOR 'HARD KNOCKS' (6:05 p.m. ET)
Bengals players got an eye-opening preview of what they can expect for the next few weeks as they moved into their dormitory housing Thursday at Georgetown College. The team agreed to be the focus of this year's HBO "Hard Knocks" series, which gets behind-the-scenes footage of what it's like to go through training camp.
Camera crews scurried from one player to another as they checked in and got their room keys. Several players were followed through the parking lot and even into their rooms, something they're not used to at all.
"It's going to be really weird," quarterback Carson Palmer said. "I've only been here for maybe an hour and a half. They're coming in the room with you and sticking the camera in your car window. It's definitely different. But I've talked to a couple of guys who have experienced the 'Hard Knocks' deal and they said after a couple of days, you kind of get past it and don't even realize they're around."
Coach Marvin Lewis embraced the offer to put his team in the spotlight for the show's fifth season. He thought the exposure would be good for the franchise, which has only one winning season in the last 18 years. He convinced camera-shy owner Mike Brown to sign off on it, too.
Though Lewis played down suggestions that the ever-present cameras could be intrusive, some of his coaches weren't so sure. Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski acknowledged initial misgivings about being the centerpiece for the five-episode program, which will begin airing on Aug. 12. He was afraid the cameras would be a distraction for players and provide insights for opponents.
"I think there will be some distraction to it, but it shouldn't hurt us," Bratkowski said.
-- The Associated Press
MANY STEELERS STARTERS BACK, FEW BIG ISSUES (6:04 p.m. ET)
It's almost a given since the NFL adopted a salary cap 15 years ago: win a Super Bowl, break up the team in a year or two. The Patriots were the exception, winning three titles in four years, and now the Steelers will try to take their third in five seasons by doing what they do best. That means staying the course, refusing to hitch themselves to the latest strategical trend and keeping their best players signed.
That's why the team that reports to training camp Friday at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, about an hour's drive east of Pittsburgh, will be nearly identical to the one that won the Super Bowl six months ago. Only two starters are gone, a rarity during the salary cap era, and neither player who left may have started this season.
Indeed, the biggest change from past summers will be visible not on St. Vincent's steamy practice fields but along the sidelines.
Team owner Dan Rooney has been a training camp fixture since he was a toddler during the 1930s. But he is expected to miss all or most of camp now that he is the U.S. ambassador to Ireland. Rooney's midfield confabs with his coach always signaled the unofficial end to that day's work, but now coach Mike Tomlin will huddle with only one Rooney, team president Art Rooney II, Dan's son and the grandson of team founder Art Rooney.
-- The Associated Press
SPARANO COMPARES SEASONS AS DOLPHINS COACH (5:58 p.m. ET)
A year later, Tony Sparano can laugh about his first impression of the Dolphins. The team he took over in early 2008 was coming off a 1-15 season, the worst in franchise history. Then came a sudden transformation. The Dolphins went 11-6 in 2008, climbing from worst in the NFL to first in the AFC East. They ended a seven-year postseason drought and became the first team in league history to make the playoffs a year after winning only once.
Now the challenge is to continue the extraordinary progress of last season. As preparation for Year 2 of the Bill Parcells regime begins Sunday with the first training camp practice, Sparano isn't counting on much carry-over.
"What's in the past is in the past," Sparano says. "Nothing is owed to you. Nothing is guaranteed to you in this league. That's not the kind of business that we're in. ...
"That being said, there are some things you can take from 2008. There's a confidence," he said.
Prospects are a lot rosier than at this time a year ago, when there was so much uncertainty following the biggest organizational shakeup in decades. The Dolphins had a rookie head coach, no starting quarterback and 45 new players. The offense and defense have both been significantly upgraded since, and Sparano and his staff have won the respect of the players.
"A year later, they understand what it is that we're looking for as coaches," Sparano says. "They know the system better. There are fewer mental errors. Guys are able to react a lot faster. Without being arrogant, it's like night and day."
As Sparano prepares to lead the first practice, he's confident his players are ready to follow -- more so than at this time in 2008.
"I'm doing the same things right now that I was a year ago," he says. "The difference is they're paying attention a little bit more. Last year, every day you came out, you had to prove something to the players. Now I think these guys understand there is a method to my madness. They have bought in, and there is some history there."
-- The Associated Press
ZORN ADJUSTS IN SECOND YEAR AS COACH (5:54 p.m. ET)
Year I of Jim Zorn's life as an NFL head coach certainly hit some bumps, not just on the field -- where a 6-2 start was followed by a 2-6 dive to 8-8, with no playoffs -- but also away from it, including a public spat with his running back Clinton Portis over playing time and other matters.
By all accounts, Zorn is making adjustments for Year II, which makes sense, considering he never worked at a position higher than quarterbacks coach before being picked to replace Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs in Washington.
"Every year, coaches have to grow within their own program," Zorn said. "Grow with the players they've got. Grow with what you might be able to do -- and what you know you can't do."
Zorn acknowledges feeling "more relaxed," and he attributes that, in part, to players and coaches knowing each other more and knowing the team's system more. Make no mistake, however, Zorn is in charge, and he makes the rules.
He dressed down some players for wearing various colors and lengths of shorts and sweatpants during last year's practices. This year, Zorn told his players, everyone should wear burgundy -- the team's main uniform color -- and there are three acceptable lengths.
To demonstrate this during a team meeting, Zorn wore full-length burgundy sweatpants, peeled those off to reveal burgundy cutoffs, and then removed those to reveal burgundy shorts.
"I don't want all of the different colors, because we don't look like a team," Zorn explained. "And that's what we're trying to put together: a team."
-- The Associated Press