Saints at Buccaneers Thursday injury report: Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead still absent

The New Orleans Saints had the great luxury of returning starting left tackle Terron Armstead along with running back Alvin Kamara last weekend ahead of their win against the New York Jets. Now, as they prepare to head to Tampa to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, things aren’t trending with as much positivity for the offensive line.

Both starting tackles Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead missed their second consecutive day of practice. Hopefully at least one of them will find their way back to the field on Friday and listed as questionable before the Sunday night game.

If Ramczyk and Armstead cannot go this week, the offensive line would presumably see a bit of a shuffle if the Saints’ Week 13 game against the Cowboys is indication. In that matchup, Calvin Throckmorton remained at left guard, but James Hurts moved to left tackle while veteran Jordan Mills plugged in on the right side. New Orleans would then likely use either Will Clapp at James Carpenter as the sixth-man. Clapp was re-signed by the team on Thursday after being waived earlier this week. Carpenter supplanted the former LSU star as the sixth-man last weekend against the Jets.

Some good news for New Orleans, wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey and defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson were both upgraded on Thursday. Humphrey to limited with a hamstring injury and Gardner-Johnson to full.

Humphrey has has over 40 receiving yards in the last two games for which he was active and could be a nice set of extra hands this weekend. Meanwhile Gardner-Johnson’s contributions are fervently welcomed back as he returned to the team last week.

The Saints have activated defensive end Cam Jordan from the COVID/reserve list. Another very welcome return after missing the first game of his career on Sunday. Running back Mark Ingram has yet to be activated, but he was added to the COVID list one day after Jordan. Hopefully that means he’ll be reactivated soon.

No other changed for now for New Orleans, and no changes at all for Tampa from yesterday’s report aside from a rest day for quarterback Tom Brady. That’s not great news for the Bucs though who have several players from their secondary out of practice for the second-straight day.

Even if only one of them is unable to go, that could cause some issues for Tampa’s pass defense and even their run defense, depending on who the person would be. To that same extend, even a hampered but available secondary would certainly draw some targets from Sean Payton.

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