Saints head coach Sean Payton knows some of the answers.
\nHe knows his team will practice at the Cowboys\u2019 AT&T Stadium in North Texas \u2026<\/b>
\nSaints head coach Sean Payton knows some of the answers. He knows his team will practice at the Cowboys\u2019 AT&T Stadium in North Texas for three consecutive days beginning Monday. He knows he must trim his roster to 53 players by the league\u2019s 4 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline. And he knows the Saints still plan to open their season against the Green Bay Packers. Then there are the unknowns facing New Orleans\u2019 NFL team after a hasty but relatively smooth evacuation to Dallas ahead of Hurricane Ida hitting land. Where will the team practice next week? Where will the Saints play that scheduled-for-Sept.12 opener against the Packers? Payton, considering the damage inflicted with all of Orleans Parish without power, cannot yet know. \u201cWe don\u2019t know relative to the starting game Week 1 in the Superdome,\u201d Payton told reporters Monday morning via conference call. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep you posted when we hear. Obviously, we\u2019ll have a Plan B. There are a lot of other things probably from a priority standpoint that are more important for our city. That all being said, we fully anticipate starting the season with Green Bay. The question would be where that game\u2019s at. \u201cI don\u2019t see it being in Green Bay.\u201d The Saints canceled their Saturday preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals, instead evacuating to a Dallas hotel by Saturday evening. Players, coaches, football operations staff and roughly 120 family members safely evacuated before Ida landed. Payton moved the players\u2019 scheduled day off from Monday to Sunday, then reconvened the team for a meeting Monday morning. Logistics were broached, as was the necessity of trimming the workforce shortly. Season preparation continues even with imminent logistics unsettled. Afternoon practices will commence at AT&T Stadium on Monday at 1:30 p.m. local time. Tuesday and Wednesday practices will begin the same time. After that, the whereabouts of scheduling are murky. Payton expects it will be \u201cunrealistic\u201d to practice next week at the team facility in Metairie, Louisiana. \u201cI think what\u2019s more realistic is once this roster gets reduced, I kind of see these guys Wednesday taking some time away, head back to where they\u2019re from originally maybe,\u201d Payton said. \u201cThen me on Wednesday telling them, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ll see you guys Sunday night and here\u2019s where we\u2019re going to be.\u2019 \u201cWe\u2019re going to start practicing on Monday, we just got to fill in that last blank. But I don\u2019t see that realistically being in New Orleans.\u201d<\/p>\n