#Saints Tanoh Kpassagnon was close to playing yesterday, Rizzi said. He mentioned that the conversation was ongoing until they had to announce inactive an hour and a half before the game. Decision not to play him was more about gameplan than injury recovery.
— Ross Jackson (@RossJacksonNOLA) December 16, 2024
The New Orleans Saints defensive line had an outstanding day against the Washington Commanders in Week 15, putting together an 8-sack performance with 25 pressures as well. With that said, they did so without the aid of Tanoh Kpassagnon, who is recovering from his torn Achilles and has been making strides in practice, getting ever closer to playing once again.
However, despite practicing fully leading up to this game, he was not active, and interim head coach Darren Rizzi shared some context as to why, telling reporters afterwards that it was more about the game plan than Kpassagnon’s health. He says the veteran defensive lineman is ready to play.
Clearly the gameplan was correctly set up, as the pass rush was enormously successful. Getting depth back along the defensive line is always a bonus however, especially a veteran who knows what he’s doing. Kpassagnon has 3.0 sacks in 3 games against the Green Bay Packers (the next Saints opponent), so we will see if he gets included for the Week 16 game instead.
