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The NFL draft is hyped up as the event when teams seek to get better by adding fresh talent from the college ranks, so it was frustrating to see the New Orleans Saints prepare for their Week 1 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers without the most valuable players they’ve picked in recent years.
In a Monday appearance on WWL Radio, Saints coach Sean Payton preached patience with one of those players: third-year defensive end Marcus Davenport, ruled out with an elbow injury suffered late in training camp.
“Look it’s gonna be soon here Davenport’s back,” Payton said. “He’s got an injury that if you try to hustle him back too early, [he would] be out for a lot longer. We’re gonna be making the right decisions regarding his health.”
If there’s a silver lining for Saints fans here, it’s that Davenport didn’t start the season on injured reserve. NFL teams are allowed to sideline players on I.R. for three weeks at a time this year, so if this were a long-term problem for Davenport then he would have been designated to the reserve list.
It might suggest the Saints expect him to be back in a week or two, which is supported by Payton’s comments. We’ll learn more when the Saints publish their first injury report on Thursday.
Fortunately, the Saints backups did a great job filling in for Davenport across from starting end Cameron Jordan. Jordan saw his usual majority of snaps (60, 85.7% of the defense’s total) with Trey Hendrickson (39 snaps) and Carl Granderson (23) rotating in. Versatile practice squad call-up Margus Hunt (21 snaps) also got some looks out on the edge. Both Hendrickson and Granderson got onto the stats sheet with sacks, and Hendrickson was credited with a pair of other quarterback hits.
It was enough to raise the hackles of Bucs coach Bruce Arians. After reviewing the game tape on Monday, he roasted left tackle Donovan Smith, who was charged with blocking the Hendrickson-Granderson combo in Davenport’s absence.
“I was very disappointed in his play,” Arians said. “I think every now and then he reverts back to some techniques that are not very good [and] he got beat. He had, probably, the easiest guy to block up there and he did a poor job. It was one of his poorer games and [I] expect for him to bounce back this week, yes.”
The Saints will visit Tampa Bay for a rematch on Nov. 8, under the bright lights on Sunday Night Football. And Smith will probably be drawing a matchup with Davenport, who beat him for a pair of sacks in their meeting last year. The Saints pass rush got off to a great start against the Buccaneers, and it looks like they’re set up to keep that momentum going.
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