Injuries don’t excuse Saints losses, but expose roster shortcomings

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints are beat up.

They are missing their starting quarterback, their best offensive player, their top wide receiver and tight end, their starting tackles among three missing starters on the offensive line, two key defensive linemen, one of their top defensive backs and their Pro Bowl kicker.

I might have missed somebody.

And yet …

Their back-to-back abysmal offensive performances on Thursday Night Football cannot be adequately explained merely by the absence of what admittedly is an inordinate number of key players missing due to injury.

The injuries don’t excuse Taysom Hill, to whom the Saints have given two significant raises in less than a year in the belief that he can be an effective starting quarterback, throwing four interceptions, including a pick-six.

The injuries don’t excuse nearly the entire receiving corps being unable to catch passes that are placed within their grasp or being unable to get open as often as they are blanketed by defenders.

The injuries don’t excuse a five-game losing streak that has this 5-7 team reeling.

It’s extremely difficult to envision a scenario in which the Saints make the playoffs this season.

The injuries have lowered the ceiling for this team, but they shouldn’t have lowered it below the playoff threshold that includes an extra team this season in a conference filled mostly with mediocre teams.

The Saints haven’t been able to withstand these injuries because head coach Sean Payton and the personnel department cobbled together a roster with inadequate depth.

The Saints have been lacking an adequate complement to Michael Thomas at wide receiver for a few seasons and now in Thomas’ season-long absence the inadequacy of the receiving corps is glaring.

Return specialist Deonte Harris is a nice player, the most dynamic receiver in Thomas’ absence, and he almost certainly will embark on a three-suspension next week once the NFL rules on his Hail Mary appeal.

The quality of depth on the Saints offensive line has been inadequate for a few seasons now and the rash of injuries have left them unable to cobble together a unit consisting of five NFL-caliber blockers.

The Saints defense has mostly played well enough for the team to have a better record than 5-7, but the offense has rarely matched the defense. That has been especially true in these last two games.

If Alvin Kamara, Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead return soon the offense will immediately become more productive.

But we don’t know who’s coming back when.

We do know that Jameis Winston isn’t coming back.

Siemian tried his best with limited ability but couldn’t help the team win any of the four games he started.

Payton turned to Hill on Thursday, looking for a more dynamic playmaker to lead the offense.

Hill is the Saints’ most versatile player.

But no one is as versatile as he needed to be.

No one player can do everything that Hill would have had to do have done for the Saints to muster enough offense to beat the Cowboys.

Hill ran for a career-high 101 yards and passed for 264 yards and two touchdowns.

Even though Hill can run really well and pass well enough from time to time he can’t run pass patterns and get open and catch the ball.

Well, actually he can but he can’t do that while playing quarterback.

Hill did provide a bit of a spark; in fact he was their best offensive player for three quarters.

But the Saints couldn’t put together long drives with any consistency

Then it all came apart in the fourth quarter as Hill threw interceptions on three successive possessions, the last of which was returned for a touchdown.

As long as Kamara is sidelined by injury and Harris is suspended (presumably), Hill is the Saints’ most dynamic offensive player.

His dual-threat ability gave the Saints a fighting chance for three quarters Thursday.

But he was the Saints’ best rusher Thursday. Had he played wide receiver he probably would have been their most dependable pass catcher.

Perhaps going forward, Payton might want to consider going back to Siemian at quarterback and using Hill in his jack-of-all-trades role.

That dilemma demonstrates how ill-prepared the Saints have made themselves for this rash of injuries.