Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton came clean in their press conference a couple days ago now that P-Rob had his knee scoped, which landed him on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. Now the 4th year corner is apparently set to likely miss some preseason games, at the very least, which gives a tremendous opportunity to the guys behind him. While Keenan Lewis and Jabari Greer stand on solid ground from a roster status perspective, this is major news for Corey White and veteran Chris Carr who now figure to be the primary guys battling for time as the #3 corner.
Too bad for Robinson, because honestly I feel like this is a make or break season for him after how disastrous 2012 was for him personally on the field. I had Patrick Robinson graded out as the fourth worst player on the entire roster last season, and Pro Football Focus had him ranked 17th out of 25 defenders graded on the year. When he comes back, hopefully at some point in the preseason, he’ll have a lot of catching up to do. Both from the perspective of catching up on the scheme and regaining his lost spot, but also shaking off the rust of a knee scope which means he’s not out really running much. It’s hard when you’ve been sitting for weeks to bounce back and get back to game speed quickly, while likely dealing with soreness and/or swelling. That means, realistically, it’s probably going to be tough for him to be game ready at 100% by week 1. Judging by how last year went, I’m not sure I want to see P-Rob operating at less than 80%. The good news for P-Rob is the depth at CB is so poor, I have a hard time seeing the Saints not hang on to a roster spot for him regardless.
The first day of camp apparently went well, with the biggest news being Drew Brees looking awful rusty. Yeah, go ahead and just stop with that right now. He’ll be fine. Nice to see one of the picks be Keenan Lewi on a deep ball though. Junior Galette and Will Smith were the starting OLBs, with David Hawthorne back with the 2s at middle linebacker.
The only other two players that ended up on the PUP list were Marques Colston, who should be fine but has a foot issue (possibly related to his plantar fascitiis last year?) and Victor Butler who has a torn ACL. Butler could remain on the PUP list till week 6 of the regular season at which point the Saints would have to choose between putting him on IR or activating him. They could also place him on IR before the start of the regular season, and either shelve him for the season or designate him for later activation. If they did the latter, he’d be eligible to return by week 8 to play (week 6 for practice). The Saints will probably keep an eye on both his rehab and see who else gets hurt before making any decision like that, just ahead of week 1. The new IR rule to bring back a guy is nice, but you can only do it with one player which means you have to be A. confident week 8 would be a likely possible return date and B. sure that the guy you designate is your “best hurt player that has a chance of coming back later that season”. Right now that’s maybe Victor Butler, if he can even realistically be ready by week 8, and hopefully it stays that way. Somebody get Butler on the Adrian Peterson regimen.
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