The New Orleans Saints are currently playing without starters and cornerstones like Taysom Hill, Pete Werner and Cesar Ruiz — not to mention Derek Carr.
This week’s initial injury report featured nine players who did not participate. It was only a projection because it was a walkthrough, but many of them remained sidelined on Thursday’s updated report. It still shows how many injuries the Saints are dealing with.
New Orleans has had the more expansive injury report every week this season, and it continues to grow. Even guys like Rashid Shaheed and Alvin Kamara have been limited at practice.
The Saints played the Kansas City Chiefs on “Monday Night Football,” and have to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this upcoming week. They follow it up with a Sean Payton reunion against the Denver Broncos on “Thursday Night Football.” That’s a stretch of three games in eleven days.
This is a bad time for the team to have back-to-back short weeks. The Saints are down offensive linemen and critical pieces on the offense and defense. Oftentimes, teams will be hesitant to bring players back on short weeks.
On the bright side, the Saints will have ten days to rest until the next game after Denver. The hope is that long break will lead to the return of some key players, but they must navigate this gauntlet first.
