Saints vs. Panthers injury report: Tre’Quan Smith out, Terron Armstead questionable

The New Orleans Saints will host the Carolina Panthers for their final home stand of the 2021 season on Sunday. Whether or not they’ll have multiple starters available for their offensive line remains to be seen, but it’s not impossible.

The Saints, who are already unlikely to have center Erik McCoy on the offensive line are not yet without their star tackle Terron Armstead. It looks like he’ll be a gametime decision after following the same cadence he did last week with two DNPs and a last-day elevation to limited. Even though the Saints didn’t hold practice today, the expectation is that he would have been a part of the day’s plans. That’s good news for the Saints who are still without Ryan Ramczyk on the right side. Ramczyk has been battling injuries all season and is also currently still on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

At wide receiver, the Saints will be without 2018 draft pick Tre’Quan Smith who has been ruled out with a back injury. The Saints will have the good fortune of turning back to Deonte Harris (who recently changed his last name to his step-father’s [Harty] over the holidays) who has served his three game suspension and has been added back to the active roster after landing on the COVID list last week.

Defensive end Marcus Davenport and tight end Nick Vannett are listed without designations which means that they are expected to be available this weekend. Davenport has been battling through this shoulder injury for several weeks, but continues to find his way back to the field and with consistent impact.

New Orleans will also have a slew of additional questionable players along with Terron Armstead including two running backs in Ty Montgomery and Mark Ingram as well as wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey, defensive back Bradley Roby, and defensive lineman Carl Granderson.

For the Panthers, they will indeed be without top cornerback Stephon Gilmore as expected. They will also be without left tackle Cam Erving. That sets up a rookie matchup for Marcus Davenport as he’ll line up across former BYU Cougar Brady Christensen.

The Panthers could still get players like Brian Burns and Shaq Thompson, a pair of their top defenders back ahead of Sunday’s game. If they cannot, Carolina’s defense would continue to be depleted beyond just the secondary. Another top pass rusher, Hassan Reddick is also on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. He and Burns have tallied 20 of the Panthers’ 36 sacks so far this season.

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