Jabari Greer Replacement Options?
By John Hendrix
Nov 17, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints cornerback Jabari Greer (33) injures his leg on a play where he broke up a pass to San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jon Baldwin (84) during the first quarter of a game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
If you saw the game yesterday, and I’d question where in the world you were to miss this high impact matchup, you saw the gruesome injury to Jabari Greer. Officially? We aren’t sure the actual diagnosis of what actually is wrong. Unofficially, Sean Payton has called this injury ‘significant’
"“We can’t replace Jabari and the … spiritual leadership he brings to the team as well as the field leadership. But talent-wise, Corey White is very promising, and he’s going to be a great guy in the future.” -Cam Jordan"
It’s hard to argue with Cam. Greer is one that simply can be replaced.
Greer was not the first Saints corner to go down with a significant injury, as we all remember the horrid injury that Patrick Robinson suffered in the Tampa game (torn patellar tendon) in Week 2, which ended his season. It was a hard one to watch with the amount of emotion that Robinson showed.
As for Jabari, after going down to the field, he immediately grabbed his knee. After being down for a few minutes, Greer ended up leaving on the stretcher, and was able to give the Dome crowd a thumbs up, as he was taken to the locker room.
Coach Payton was asked about the potential replacements at this point:
"“We’ll see,” Payton said. “Our guys are looking hard right now looking at all of our options.”"
It’s rumored that the Saints will bring in 2nd year corner Trevin Wade, who played in 13 games for the Browns last season as a rookie from Arizona. He was actually waived to make room for the former Saint, Eric Martin. Wade worked out with several cornerbacks Monday, and because of it, he looks to be rewarded.
Jabari Greer has not officially been put on injured reserve, but one would have to think this will happen with the signing of a new cornerback.
I speculated that it would be extremely tough to expect a cornerback to be game ready by Thursday to play against the Falcons. However, at this point, if indeed Wade joins the Saints, I expect his primary role will be on the Saints special teams unit, at least at first.
Corey White will start opposite of Keenan Lewis, with Chris Carr & Roderick Sweeting as the backups. Sweeting has not seen much action this season, as he made the team as an undrafted rookie from Georgia Tech.
The good news for the Saints? After the game against Atlanta, they won’t play until December 2nd, which is the big showdown with the Seahawks on Monday Night. The Saints would have 10 days in between those games.
As for who to bring in? The automatic name swirling was Nnamdi Asomugah, whose name circled during Free Agency often, but he opted for San Francisco, to be the team’s 3rd string cornerback. He was released on November 4th, and cleared waivers. Nnamdi has history with Rob Ryan, but after he left Oakland, his career arguably has never been the same.
Some other names to keep an eye on perhaps? Well here’s a brief list of maybe some names to watch:
Stanford Routt
Perrish Cox
Shawntae Spencer
Sheldon Brown
Cedric Griffin
Marcus Trufant
Will Allen
D.J. Moore
What’s the Saints best option for Jabari Greer? Let us know!
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