Yep, coaching challenges aside I don’t ever think a Saints team has been as decimated by injuries, specifically all on one side of the ball as we were this season.
We have effectively lost our entire wide receiver room. The offensive line has been patch-worked since week 3. That patch work at times included resorting to third stringers and street free agents. When we broke camp in Irvine the offensive unit was a giant question mark and paper thin. We have lost our starting QB to injury not once but twice. Taysom Hill was carted off and like Carr was injured not once but twice. Outside of Taysom Hill the TE’s have been by and large healthy but ineffective. The running back group has seen Kendre Miller play a whopping total of three games. AK who has been playing the entire year hurt (but has seemed to have found the fountain of youth) now looks to be significantly injured and may well miss the rest of the games with a groin injury.
Currently, we are fielding an offensive unit fit for the 3rd preseason game and have been doing so for a large part of the season. There is simply no way to win in the NFL when you’re in that situation. Factor that in with we had an empty suit for a head coach for the bulk of the season and quit frankly the fact that we have won as much as we have is quite impressive.
The season it’s self was lost in late September and early October when we couldn’t close out Philly and the Falcons. The exclamation on the season would come a few weeks later when we got drubbed by Tampa and the Broncos. That was the fat lady singing after Sean Payton destroyed us on Drew Brees honor day.