The New Orleans Saints are seen as one of the top contenders for this year’s Super Bowl, but they’re going to have to overcome a few early season obstacles. For their first game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Saints are looking very healthy with an injury report that is extremely short. On the other hand, they are quite short-handed at running back, due to the shocking release of rookie Boston Scott.
While the final injury reports for teams playing on Sunday don’t have to be out until Friday afternoon, the Saints are looking good so far. As reported by the official site of the New Orleans Saints , there were only two players listed as of Thursday afternoon and one wasn’t even injury related.
Offensive guard Andrus Peat was limited in practice on Thursday, but that was an improvement after he didn’t practice at all on Wednesday. Offensive tackle Jermon Bushrod sat out Thursday’s session, but his participation was not injury related, which means there is no real concern there.
Peat is dealing with a quad injury that looked much better on Thursday, but he still wasn’t out of the water just yet. If the Saints believe he still isn’t healed enough by Saturday, they may end up going with a game-time decision on whether or not Peat can play against the Bucs.
Sean Payton on Andrus Peat this morning: “It’s just going to be day-to-day with him. He’s had a good offseason, I’m encouraged with his progress.” https://t.co/JrJUlbySFs
— Luke Johnson (@ByLukeJohnson) September 6, 2018
While the Saints are looking very healthy with a short injury report, there is still concern about the lack of depth at running back. Starter Mark Ingram is going to miss the first four games due to an NFL suspension and that leaves Alvin Kamara as the primary back throughout that time.
As reported by Inquisitr , the Saints signed running back Mike Gilislee over the weekend after he was released by the New England Patriots. If this is how things go, the Saints will only have two true running backs on the roster when they face the Bucs, and they will have the services of fullback Zach Line as well.
The reason for the lack of depth is that the Saints shockingly waived running back Boston Scott on Wednesday, and it left a lot of people confused. As reported by Who Dat Dish , Scott was released to make way for the return of offensive tackle Michael Ola on the 53-man regular season roster.
The Saints waived rookie RB Boston Scott, per source. Pretty shocking move.
— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) September 5, 2018
The return of Ola makes sense as the Saints may be a bit more worried about Peat’s injury than they are letting on. Still, they are quite deep at the position and it isn’t as if Ola has a ton of game time experience.
It is the release of Scott which had so many wondering what the Saints are doing, and hardly anyone expected him to clear waivers. By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, though, he had cleared waivers and Scott’s future appeared certain at that time.
Scott had some other offers. He decided to stay here. https://t.co/CHTmMpoNbg
— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) September 6, 2018
The interesting thing is that Boston Scott apparently did receive a few other offers from around the league, but he turned them down. It seems the Saints have a plan for the rookie running back and head coach Sean Payton made sure that he knew it. With the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looming, the New Orleans Saints look to be in great shape as far as injuries go, but the mystery of the running back position remains.
