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It is absolutely a major contributing factor to our current issues. We lost our 2nd and 3rd most productive receivers and our 2nd most productive running back before the season started and replaced them all with undrafted players. Michael Thomas started on PUP and his loss of production was expected for nearly half of the season. On defense we lost some of our depth as well. Trey Hendrickson alone had 13.5 sacks last year and we replaced him with a rookie. We also lost Jackrabbit, Brown and Rankins and Onyemata was suspended for the first 6 weeks. Oh yeah, and our hall of fame QB retired.
Injuries absolutely sunk the ship we had left because it had a shallow hull to begin with, but please don’t pretend that this team was stacked to begin with. We have a few great players and a lot of marginal players. That is where my expectations came from.
Soooo...I was right. You have totally misplaced why this team is struggling to win games now. We're struggling because of the breadth of injuries. All of the things you named were present when this team started 5-2. It was when the uncharacteristically heavy amount of injuries started occurring did the team take a down turn. If you were right, and the preseason stuff was a major contributing factor, the Saints never would have seen 5-2. So it's safe to say, the injuries sustained during the season are the major contributing factor.