Rookie Kelvin Banks Jr. unbothered with sampling several positions along New Orleans Saints offensive line

At some point the New Orleans Saints coaching staff will begin the paring procedure for Kelvin Banks Jr., shaving down the responsibilities and assignments for their first-round draft pick.

But that process didn’t begin during rookie minicamp last weekend for the team’s first-round pick (No. 9 overall), and it won’t likely be fully implemented for a few more OTA and minicamp gatherings.

On Saturday, Banks, exclusively a left tackle since his sophomore season in high school, lined up at that position as well as left guard and right tackle as the Saints seek his best fit along the line.

“Kelvin’s going to play a couple of positions as we go, just kind of let these guys get settled,” Saints Coach Kellen Moore said. “I think for us, it’s just seeing these guys in different body positions.

“He went across the offensive line (Saturday) and we’ll narrow our focus as we go through this process. I think for a lot of our guys, every position, we’re trying to expose them to a couple different spots, couple different environments and just see how they respond, and then we’ll settle them in as we go.”

Banks – a consensus All-American last season at Texas who won the Jacobs Blocking Award, Lombardi Award (best offensive lineman in college football) and Outland Trophy (best interior lineman in college football) – totally is unbothered by the exposure. The 6-foot-5, 315-pounder just wants to play ball.

“If you love football it shouldn’t matter what position you’re playing,” he said. “It shouldn’t matter if you’re out there only on special teams, it shouldn’t matter if you’re just a guard on field goal, just blocking. If you want to be out there on the field, you love football, then it doesn’t matter what spot they put you at.

“The biggest thing I know in the NFL is that the more you can do, the longer you can stay in the league. So the more I can help my team, the longer I’ll be asked to help my team win games.

“I appreciate them for trusting in me. Obviously, they picked me to kind of go out there and do what I do, so I just appreciate them for trusting me to be able to process that quickly and go out there and learn different positions and go out there and just play football.”