Saints' Vilma 'feeling good'

METAIRIE – Jonathan Vilma backpedaled about five yards before breaking to his left towards the line of scrimmage.

No grimace on his face.

No brace on his knee.

No problem.

The only thing holding New Orleans’ newest linebacker back is, well, head coach Sean Payton.
“It felt good. Obviously, limited in practice,” Vilma said. “But me and coach worked out a nice little bargaining agreement. He’s letting me do a couple of things outside. Letting me work with the team a little bit, work with the linebackers. It’s exciting to come from the rehab and come from the surgery to get to this point.”

Several months after having a bone spur removed from his knee – the result of a previous injury – the 6-foot-1, 230-pound linebacker is getting ever closer to being 100 percent.

But with so much at stake, his doctors and coaches are wary of him doing much during OTAs – Organized Team Activities – or during the Saints upcoming minicamp.

“I had to make the first move,” Vilma said. “I had to initiate the conversation. It’s good. I feel good out there.”

“His progress has been good and very encouraging,” Saints head coach Sean Payton said. “There haven’t been any setbacks. It’s been very positive.”

A few years ago, Vilma said, he likely wouldn’t have understood how or even why needs to come along slowly.

“Probably if I were five years younger, I’d go out there and ignore what the coaches say,” Vilma said. “Right now, I have to take care of my body and we’re all on the same mission.”

He added, “I feel like I can do the whole practice. Is that the best thing for me? Probably not. The best thing for me is to gradually get into it.”

For the move to work for both the Saints and Vilma, though, he’ll need to at least get back to the way he produced in his sophomore campaign with the New York Jets.

As a rookie, he started 14 of 16 games and compiled 107 tackles. But in his second season, he started all 16 contests and recorded 169 tackles – 124 solo – and forced four fumbles.

But then Eric Mangini took over the Jets and changed defenses, going from a 4-3 with three linebackers to a 3-4 with four linebackers. Vilma’s production went down.

Now in New Orleans, Vilma will again play in a 4-3, and that’s making his transition to the South that much easier.

“A lot of the concepts are the same,” Vilma said. “I’m just learning a different language now.”

It’s likely Vilma will sit out of most of the heavy contact drills during the Saints’ minicamp, which begins May 30 at the team’s Airline Highway facility.

The question is whether he’ll be ready for training camp, which starts in late July.

“We’ll see,” he said.

(wwltv.com)