Things went from bad to worse for the New Orleans Saints defense in Sunday’s game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Starting safety and team captain Tyrann Mathieu left early with an elbow injury, and was later downgraded. He was ruled out and didn’t return in the second half.
The Saints were already shorthanded at safety with Will Harris going on injured reserve before the game. After Mathieu went down their only active options were Jordan Howden, Johnathan Abram (called up from the practice squad, and who played through a back injury), and special teams ace J.T. Gray, who has never seen much action on defense.
It’s more losses than a team can reasonably handle, when guys are having to come in from the special teams units and practice squad and handle starter’s reps. It’s just more adversity for Dennis Allen’s team to navigate through the short week before Thursday night’s game against Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos.
