The New Orelans Saints were not able to come out of the seventh day of training camp (also the second day with pads) unscathed. Three players, Juwan Johnson, Treyton Welch, and John Ridgeway III, were injured during practice.
No timeline was given for Wednesday's injuries, but head coach Kellen Moore remained calm in the press conference afterwards. "We had a couple of guys go down during practice, nothing overly concerning. But we'll take care of business, and I'll communicate tomorrow if there's anything that's going to last beyond a day or so."
The three players aren't the first to see the injury report. Safety J.T. Gray left Tuesday's practice with a hamstring injury, and is now week-to-week.
The injuries have made an already thin tight end room even thinner
Kellen Moore is aware of how thin the room has gotten. "It's certainly something we'll just have to keep an eye on. If we have to make any adjustments, we will." he said after practice.
Johnson and Welch's injuries now bring the total number of injured tight ends on the roster to four. Already injured were Taysom Hill, who tore his ACL in week 13 of last year, and Foster Moreau, who hurt his knee in last seasons finale.
The remaining healthy tight ends are Seth Green (no, not that one), Michael Jacobson, Moliki Matavao, and Jack Stoll. In the remaining group of tight ends, it'll be tough to find much experience.
Not only are the Saints low in experience, they also don't have a lot of bodies. With four healthy tight ends, it could compromise what the offense can do. "Sometimes you just have to adjust some scripts. If you don't have the bodies there, you just play in a little bit of different personnel groups."
For the Saints to be able to use their new offense (one that helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl last year) at full force, Juwan Johnson will have to get and stay healthy. Thankfully, he is not expected to be out for long.