Know Your Foe: New Orleans, part two

CHARLOTTE – Over the last couple of weeks in the NFL, it’s become more difficult to predict what will happen on Sunday afternoons. Or Saturdays. Or Mondays. Or Tuesdays.

This is because the COVID-19 Omicron variant is wreaking havoc on teams’ rosters.

Take the New Orleans Saints (7-8), for example.

One week after shutting out Tom Brady and the New Orleans Saints, the Saints were soundly beaten, 20-3, by Miami on Monday Night Football.

New Orleans managed just 164 yards of offense as Ian Book started the first game of his career at quarterback.

Let’s take a look at the Saints in Week 17.

Prior to Monday’s game, the Saints had 22 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, including quarterbacks Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian, offensive linemen Ryan Ramczyk and Jordan Mills, linebackers Demario Davis and Kwon Alexander and safety Malcolm Jenkins.

As we’ve seen from around the NFL the last two weeks, several players could all be back by Sunday, some could still be on the list, and others might be added by that time.

The Panthers coaching staff will be throwing darts at a moving board in terms of game planning against such a roster in flux (admittedly, the same goes for New Orleans after the Panthers put six players on the COVID-19 list on Monday).