As the New Orleans Saints shift their focus from the preseason and the cutdown to a 53-man roster, they made a few moves since Tuesday. Will the trade for John Ridgeway improve the defensive line, and how does the addition of ex-Vikings specialist Kene Nwangwu affect the team?

The good news is CBs Marshon Lattimore and Kool-Aid McKinstry returned to practice, as well as WR Rashid Shaheed. Will there be a few more before the Saints open the regular season at home in the Dome against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 8?

Host Jim Derry talks about that, and he previews LSU’s season-opening game in Las Vegas against the USC Trojans on Sunday and Tulane starting with Southeastern on Thursday at Yulman on Thursday’s Birthday Edition of the Dattitude Podcast (Ep. 271) presented by Evangeline Securities. Bet.NOLA.com’s Tom Casale and Gabe Henderson are here to help break it down and offer a few plays for Week 1 of the college football season.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction

7:15 Opening thoughts

14:30 Thursday with Gabe Henderson

23:40 Saints 53-man roster

26:05 Trade for John Ridgeway

27:45 Looking ahead to Panthers

29:05 Odds DA is 1st coach fired

32:00 Tom Casale joins show

34:00 LSU-USC preview

43:35 Tulane-SLU preview

47:15 CFB Week 1 preview

55:00 Final thoughts

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The Dattitude Podcast, which is always free to subscribe and listen, is streamed regularly each Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings live at 11 a.m. and on demand on the Dattitude YouTube page, the NOLA.com Facebook page, as well as other many of our other social media locations.

It also is available by clicking on the audio player above or on all the major platforms that host podcasts, including Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more, where you can find all past episodes. Those include: Saints GM Mickey Loomis (Ep. 79) and former coach Jim Mora (Ep. 83), NFL Hall of Famer Rickey Jackson (Ep. 57), former LSU coach Dale Brown (Ep. 45), former Football Hall of Fame president David Baker (Ep. 15), ESPN anchor Stan Verrett (Ep. 1) and more.

Jim Derry is the host of the Dattitude Podcast. Member of Times-Picayune staff since 1990. Catch the pod live or on demand on YouTubeTikTokInstagram, and X. Jim can be reached at jderry@theadvocate.com or on X @JimDerryJr.