National Football League

Injury bug swarming around Saints RBs

Published Aug. 25, 2010 6:14 p.m. ET

foxsports

For all of his passing-game brilliance, the ability to conjure up clever route combinations that allow even mediocre receivers to create yawning separation in the secondary, Sean Payton embraces a physical running game. His league-best completion percentage in 2009 aside, and his marvelous display in Super Bowl XLIV notwithstanding, Drew Brees would probably just as soon hand the ball to a running back as fling it to a wide-open pass-catcher.

But just a little more than two weeks before the Saints commence defense of their NFL championship ... well, to paraphrase the hackneyed and over-utilized line from "Apollo 13," uh, New Orleans, we have a problem.

They are running out of running backs, at least healthy ones, in New Orleans. For a team that ranked sixth in rushing offense last season (bet that lofty perch surprises you, right?), and used the run to close out a lot of wins, that ain't good.

And for an otherwise high-octane offense that elevated specialization at the tailback position to an art form and painted a diverse ground-game landscape on the way to its uplifting Super Bowl win, with an offense that in 2009 seemed to have defined a distinct role for everyone in the running game, that could be an early bummer.

First, Mike Bell, who actually logged more attempts in '09 than Saints leading rusher Pierre Thomas, departed to Philadelphia, the lone player in the league this spring to exit a team via a restricted free-agent offer sheet. The Saints elevated incumbent No. 4 tailback Lynell Hamilton, a short-yardage specialist a year ago, to replace him. Then Hamilton tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in camp and was lost for the year, and New Orleans responded by signing veteran free agent Ladell Betts.

Second-year veteran P.J. Hill sustained a season-ending triceps injury over the weekend in a preseason game, and general manager Mickey Loomis was again forced to go to his "ready list" and add former Green Bay backup DeShawn Wynn.

That's three tailbacks on whom Payton, the master of the running game mix-and-match, was counting on, gone from the roster for 2010. Suddenly, the New Orleans ground game, virtually a gridiron jambalaya in '09, is reduced to a potentially bland offering. There is a word in New Orleans, lagniappe, and it essentially translates to "a little extra." But there may not be much extra in the running game to go around for the Saints this season.

The city hasn't yet been re-nicknamed The Big Uneasy, but the situation has gotten quite a bit more dicey at tailback the past few months. Heck, the past few weeks, for that matter. What's next, enticing Deuce McAllister out of retirement?

Not one to panic, Payton allowed this week that a team needed "depth and flexibility" at tailback and suggested the Saints still possess that. But Payton allowed that some people are going to have to step up, and others are going to have to become quickly acclimated to the New Orleans offense. "We still have a couple of weeks. It's not like this happened two weeks into the season, where you bring in a guy on Tuesday and have to get him ready to play (on Sunday)," the coach noted.

Still, it's a situation fraught with potential consequence.

The Saints, one of just two teams in 2009 who ranked among the top 10 offenses in both rushing and passing (Dallas was the other), rely more than people think on the ground game. And Payton relies heavily on a merry-go-round mindset at tailback to operate his high-powered offense.

The music hasn't stopped yet, but the carousel has seemingly been slowed a bit.

Only four other teams in '09 had three tailbacks who registered at least 70 carries for the season. The Houston Texans were the lone team besides the Saints who had four tailbacks with at least 30 rushes. And that doesn't count the fact that the Saints have a very elaborate set of personnel packages for their backs in the passing game.

"Everybody has a role," Reggie Bush said. "We all get some of the pie."

Those pie pieces might get bigger for some guys, perhaps Thomas and Bush, for the 2010 campaign.

The only problem is that the New Orleans stable of running backs isn't stocked so much with workhorses as it is runners more accustomed to ponying up in certain situations. Thomas, who lobbied for a big-money long-term contract in the spring before signing his restricted tender of nearly $1.18 million, has only two career games with 20 or more carries, and never logged more than 19 attempts in 2009. Bush, likewise, has just a pair of 20-carry outings in his career, none since 2007, and his high game for rushes in '09 was 13.

By comparison, Betts, who was signed off the street a couple weeks ago, has 10 games with 20 carries, more than the rest of the New Orleans roster combined.

Make no mistake, there is no crisis in New Orleans, and Payton is hardly stomping on the panic button. But two of the big components of the team's success last year - being able to run the ball to close out victories and a well-designed revolving door approach at tailback - might have already been a bit compromised.