The New Orleans Saints will host the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, and entering the game at 5-10, it clearly hasn’t been a great year for New Orleans. However, things have also been pretty bad for the Raiders, who enter this game at 3-12. The biggest storyline for Sunday’s matchup will be draft order implications.
At the beginning of the year, everyone assumed the Derek Carr revenge angle would be the main storyline of the game. However, now that the game is here, Carr won’t even be playing, as he’s still dealing with a broken hand. He’ll be one of several key Saints players that will miss this penultimate regular-season game.
Saints Week 17 inactives
Player | Position | Year |
|---|---|---|
Alvin Kamara | Running back | Eight |
Derek Carr | Quarterback | 11 |
Erik McCoy | Offensive line | Seven |
Lucas Patrick | Offensive line | Nine |
Chris Olave | Wide receiver | Three |
Mason Tipton | Wide receiver | Rookie |
Anfernee Orji | Linebacker | Two |
Jordan Mims | Running back | Two |
John Ridgeway III | Defensive tackle | Three |
Khristian Boyd | Defensive tackle | Rookie |
Key absences and their impact
The key absence is pretty much all of the starting offense. With Derek Carr, Alvin Kamara, and Chris Olave out, the Saints won’t have their QB1, RB1, or WR1. It’s also important to remember that Rashid Shaheed and Taysom Hill are on injured reserve, so New Orleans’ top skill position players will all be on the sideline.
If that wasn’t hard enough to overcome, the offensive line will also be missing key pieces, like it has all year. Both Erik McCoy and Lucas Patrick have been ruled out prior to the game starting. Erik McCoy’s initial groin injury was the first major injury domino that started the Saints’ collapse, and neither the offensive line nor the team have been able to get right since.
Now, New Orleans will lean on a lot of young players to try and get a win on Sunday over the Raiders. While it’s not ideal to have a lot of key veterans miss the game, the Saints will have the opportunity to get young guys some valuable reps, while evaluating them before an important offseason of big decisions.