It seems the entire #Saints team is banged up, and here is one more: New Orleans guard Andrus Peat suffered a pec strain last week and source said he's considered week-to-week. That indicates he'll miss this week against the #AZCardinals.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 19, 2022
That’s not ideal, but it could be worse. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday that the New Orleans Saints are expected to be without left guard Andrus Peat in Thursday night’s kickoff with the Arizona Cardinals; Peat suffered a pectoral muscle strain in Sunday’s tilt against the Cincinnati Bengals that has his availability “considered week-to-week” moving forwards. Any snaps played without the three-time Pro Bowl alternate are going to be rough, but that’s the reality for New Orleans.
With just a few days to rest up between their games in Week 6 and 7, the Saints are playing it conservatively with Peat and other players managing injuries. And it makes sense given his injury history. Peat tore a pectoral muscle last year that ended his season. Taking a safer approach to this should help avoid any aggravation that worsens his injury. Hopefully he and other injured starters like Jameis Winston, Michael Thomas, Jarvis Landry, and Marshon Lattimore will be ready to return after a longer break between Weeks 7 and 8 (when the Saints return home for a matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders).
In the meantime, look for young backup Calvin Throckmorton to again step into Peat’s spot at left guard. The former Oregon Duck spent most of the 2021 season replacing Peat in the starting lineup, and though he isn’t a blue-chip talent he is a capable stand-in. He just needs to watch out for false start penalties that have been a recurring problem throughout his career.
As for Peat: this latest injury situation has led to some grumbling within the fanbase considering his contract status and past availability issues. Peat never played a full 16-game slate before the NFL expanded the regular season, and if he misses the Cardinals on prime-time as expected he’ll have appeared in just 26 of 41 possible games since 2020, including the playoffs.
Because the Saints restructured Peat’s contract early this year, he’s on the books with an $18.3 million salary cap hit in 2023. Releasing or trading him prior to June 1, 2023 would only save $1.3 million against the cap while leaving behind $16.9 million in dead money, so he’ll be in New Orleans for at least another year. It’s a shame that the conversations surrounding Peat have come to this rather than his impressive moments as a blocker (he was instrumental in setting up several Taysom Hill touchdown runs a week ago), but you can’t ignore the cap commitments going his way when he’s missing so much time with injuries. It’s an unfortunate situation for both the player and the team.
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