The injuries cannot be overstated enough (1 Viewer)

[weightlifter316]

When you take an already bottom feeding defense and add the insane amount of injured starters, there really isn't anything that can be done.

Kikaha coming off his third ACL tear should not be viewed as someone who can contribute as a starter moving forward. The Saints need to do everything in their power to draft or acquire a true franchise type pass rusher in the offseason. Myles Garrett and others will generate lots of buzz as potential draft choices.

Rankins does not have a long injury history, but with him being a first round draft choice and already having a fairly significant lower body injury early in his career, the Saints should keep all options open in regards to how they manage the defensive tackle position moving forward. Jonathan Allen is one of the top draft prospects for 2017.

Ellerbe will flash when healthy, but like Kikaha, he also has an extensive injury history and is no longer a definite keeper for the future. The Saints could look to bring in someone through free agency who has less wear and tear.

Breaux has battled far worse than the current injury he is nursing. However, he'll also soon be 27. Far from old, but the Saints could definitely use a lockdown corner to compliment a pass rush that has hampered the defense for the better part of the last few seasons. Marlon Humphrey, Jalen Tabor, and Tre'Davious White are future corner prospects.

The injury bug has derailed the Saints start this season and most believe it is going to be a struggle to reach 7 wins. I see many Saints fans who have given up altogether. Not only on this season, but on what Payton, Brees, and Loomis can do for the franchise. Is the Super Bowl window closed? I don't believe so. But I also recognize that the Saints are not as close to being contenders as many of us believed prior to the start of the 2016 season. Even with a healthy Rankins and Kikaha, there are no guarantees that there would be enough added pressure to put the Saints into NFC title contention.

There is no easy solution for this season or next. It's easy to want to clean house after multiple losing seasons and I will not begrudge anyone who wants changes made. I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I believe Payton and Brees can make one more push with the right offseason and better luck with injuries.

 

[MSUSousaphone]

If you count the next men up as being starters.....it's 10 starters. Our top five CBs. That's insane.

I saw people stating that people will use the "injury excuse"......how can you not.

Take any defense in the NFL, scratch 10 names off of the top of the depth chart, and show me ONE team that would still have a decent defense.

 

[gumbotron]

so why not state it again,woohoo

 

[Da Living Saint]

Lewis, Breaux, Williams, Swann, Vaccaro, Ellerbe, Rankins, Davison, Armstead, Snead.

we're not talking about an injury list full of back end guys. i think the injuries are clearly an issue. no team can withstand this except for New England. that entire team could catch ebola and win 12 games.

 

[Andrus]

If you count the next men up as being starters.....it's 10 starters. Our top five CBs. That's insane.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

Right!

When I saw that Davison and Vacarro were added to the long list of players out this week my expectations for tonight dropped from "We can win this", to "I hope that we can outscore them". Davison and Vacarro are two very important cogs in this defense.

Besides having no Davison or Vacarro, there is no Breaux, P.J. Williams, Ellerbe, Wilson, Lewis, Kikaha, Rankins, or Swann on defense.

No Sneed or Armstead on offense.

Two undrafted rookie free agents and a guy signed off the streets starting at CB.

You cannot ignore so many unfortunate injuries. There should be no finger pointing otherwise. It's just a very unfortunate situation. No one is to blame.

 

[Joodas Avila]

When you take an already bottom feeding defense and add the insane amount of injured starters, there really isn't anything that can be done.

Kikaha coming off his third ACL tear should not be viewed as someone who can contribute as a starter moving forward. The Saints need to do everything in their power to draft or acquire a true franchise type pass rusher in the offseason. Myles Garrett and others will generate lots of buzz as potential draft choices.

Rankins does not have a long injury history, but with him being a first round draft choice and already having a fairly significant lower body injury early in his career, the Saints should keep all options open in regards to how they manage the defensive tackle position moving forward. Jonathan Allen is one of the top draft prospects for 2017.

Ellerbe will flash when healthy, but like Kikaha, he also has an extensive injury history and is no longer a definite keeper for the future. The Saints could look to bring in someone through free agency who has less wear and tear.

Breaux has battled far worse than the current injury he is nursing. However, he'll also soon be 27. Far from old, but the Saints could definitely use a lockdown corner to compliment a pass rush that has hampered the defense for the better part of the last few seasons. Marlon Humphrey, Jalen Tabor, and Tre'Davious White are future corner prospects.

The injury bug has derailed the Saints start this season and most believe it is going to be a struggle to reach 7 wins. I see many Saints fans who have given up altogether. Not only on this season, but on what Payton, Brees, and Loomis can do for the franchise. Is the Super Bowl window closed? I don't believe so. But I also recognize that the Saints are not as close to being contenders as many of us believed prior to the start of the 2016 season. Even with a healthy Rankins and Kikaha, there are no guarantees that there would be enough added pressure to put the Saints into NFC title contention.

There is no easy solution for this season or next. It's easy to want to clean house after multiple losing seasons and I will not begrudge anyone who wants changes made. I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I believe Payton and Brees can make one more push with the right offseason and better luck with injuries.

Thank you! All these "fire payton" and "trade Brees" guys are irritating beyond belief. It's like they forgot where we came from, pre-Sean Payton and Drew Brees.

 

[SystemShock]

Lewis, Breaux, Williams, Swann, Vaccaro, Ellerbe, Rankins, Davison, Armstead, Snead.

we're not talking about an injury list full of back end guys. i think the injuries are clearly an issue. no team can withstand this except for New England. that entire team could catch ebola and win 12 games.

I'll give you Breaux and Vaccaro, and I'll throw in Kikaha. The rest, you got 2 guys on offense, and the offense did manage to score 35 points... but the rest, I don't know.

Lewis was cut before the season started.
Ellerbe has played 6 games out of a possible 19, none this season. Brought to N.O. with a known history of injuries.
Williams has played 1 1/2 games out of possible 19. Really still a rookie, we don't really know how he's going to pan out.
Rankins is a rookie who's never played a down in the NFL.
Davidson, I don't think he's anything special.

On the other hand, check who's healthy, and ask yourself, why are they not making plays, especially up front? Why is there no pass rush? Cam's healthy. Fairley's healthy. Kruger's healthy.

 

[SystemShock]

Thank you! All these "fire payton" and "trade Brees" guys are irritating beyond belief. It's like they forgot where we came from, pre-Sean Payton and Drew Brees.

I have not forgotten where we came from, but, where are we going?

 

[dapperdan]

I'll give you Breaux and Vaccaro, and I'll throw in Kikaha. The rest, you got 2 guys on offense, and the offense did manage to score 35 points... but the rest, I don't know.

Lewis was cut before the season started.
Ellerbe has played 6 games out of a possible 19, none this season. Brought to N.O. with a known history of injuries.
Williams has played 1 1/2 games out of possible 19. Really still a rookie, we don't really know how he's going to pan out.
Rankins is a rookie who's never played a down in the NFL.
Davidson, I don't think he's anything special.

On the other hand, check who's healthy, and ask yourself, why are they not making plays, especially up front? Why is there no pass rush? Cam's healthy. Fairley's healthy. Kruger's healthy.

Lewis was only cut because of his health. That has been painfully clear especially since he had another surgery recently. If you actually think injuries haven't decimated us then none of us can say anything to change your mind.

 

[jerryrip]

I was going to post this exact thread. The injuries ARE KILLING US! We've lost 3 of our starting corners, our #1 draft pick, one of our starting linebackers, and now Willie Snead and Kenny Vaccaro for who knows how long? You can't win when you keep having to call the backups in, especially when you're tapping rookies to start their first NFL games! I know the Saints players always say "next man up" but this is getting ridiculous.

I've always heard it said that since there is so much parity in the NFL, that the teams with the least amount of injuries always play in the postseason. Now I'm a firm believer.

 

[JLaneSaints]

If you count the next men up as being starters.....it's 10 starters. Our top five CBs. That's insane.

I saw people stating that people will use the "injury excuse"......how can you not.

Take any defense in the NFL, scratch 10 names off of the top of the depth chart, and show me ONE team that would still have a decent defense.

Not good, but I'll take 10 names off the depth chart and guarantee that 29-30 other teams would still play better defense.

 

[SaintsFanatic]

lol @ anyone thinking we were super bowl contenders, or close to it, prior to the season.

There is a reason our championship odds were 66-1.

 

[Da Living Saint]

I'll give you Breaux and Vaccaro, and I'll throw in Kikaha. The rest, you got 2 guys on offense, and the offense did manage to score 35 points... but the rest, I don't know.

Lewis was cut before the season started.
Ellerbe has played 6 games out of a possible 19, none this season. Brought to N.O. with a known history of injuries.
Williams has played 1 1/2 games out of possible 19. Really still a rookie, we don't really know how he's going to pan out.
Rankins is a rookie who's never played a down in the NFL.
Davidson, I don't think he's anything special.

On the other hand, check who's healthy, and ask yourself, why are they not making plays, especially up front? Why is there no pass rush? Cam's healthy. Fairley's healthy. Kruger's healthy.

you're missing the point entirely.

Lewis was cut because he wasn't healthy. but he was clearly going to start on the other side of Breaux had he been ready. So regardless of when he got cut, you're down a starter.

Which leads to Williams. So when he gets hurt, you're down 2 starters on defense, which leads to the horrendous Ken Crawley. But you're ok because Breaux will shut down half the field, right?

Nope because then Breaux breaks his leg in the first game. So now you're down 3 starters at CB, forcing you to sign guys off the street and play UDFAs way way way more than you should or hoped.

Ellerbe is super annoying, and at this point, needs to be released. However, multiple people said he was our best defender in camp and I can almost guarantee you that he'll be starting over Anthony when he returns. Which will be good because Anthony is terrible.

Rankins is a rookie, and we don't know how well he's going to do, but he was going to start. then he gets hurt and Davison, who is an excellent rotational guy, gets hurt leading you to start Jenkins. Was anyone shocked that he got absolutely gashed on the ground as soon as Jenkins had to play a major role.

players get worse, the further you get down the depth chart. that's how it works.

 

[blackadder]

The injuries would prevent us from beating good teams and contending this year, if we had remotely been a contender in the first place.

But the front 7 that played are all veterans or guys who have been in this program for a while. They gave up 217 yards rushing with 155 of those yards coming before any defender made contact with the ball carrier. They were losing the RB out of the backfield and letting him go uncovered. They couldn't hold contain. They got hardly any pressure and when they got close Ryan just stepped up and ran for the first.

You can look at most teams in this league and sub out the entire back end of the defense with the 3rd string and the front 7 wouldn't perform that ineptly.

The injuries can be overstated.

How do the injuries relate to the special teams ineptitude, which opened the floodgates on the momentum shift?

 

[diehardfan]

The injuries are bad but every team is dealing with injuries. What this does is that is illustrates how poor our depth is on our roster.

Our margin for error is so small that we can't overcome a barrage of injuries.

It's still not an excuse for giving up 200+ yards rushing. There were missed assignments everywhere. There is a deep rooted problem on the Defensive side of the ball.