The New Orleans Saints can endure many things this summer while the vibes around the team remain low.
Losing Taliese Fuaga isn’t one of them.
Fuaga, the team’s first-round pick this year and possible long-term starter at left tackle, suffered a lower back injury near the end of the week. In fact, he didn’t even make it to team drills due to what head coach Dennis Allen later described as back tightness.
"It looked to me prior to even starting practice, it looked to me like he was stretching his back out a little bit," Allen said. "So I don't know if that was bothering him beforehand."
Back injuries can be a tricky thing for offensive linemen, so it’s yet another detail for Saints fans to monitor. But the bigger point is that Fuaga is just too important—and effective. In the preseason opener, he allowed zero pressures across 12 pass-blocking snaps with a pass-blocking grade of 77.2 at Pro Football Focus.
The Saints and Fuaga needed that positive momentum to continue, not stall. This is especially the case with offensive tackle looking like the one position the team needs to address on the open market, with the Trevor Penning experiment blowing up in their faces .
Given all the other negatives around the team right now, including just losing the free-agency bidding war for Justin Simmons to an NFC South rival , the Saints and fans could use a quick turnaround from Fuaga’s injury.
Fuaga’s importance to a Saints team in a rebuild can’t go understated, so fans have to hope this is a minor setback that doesn’t pop up again.
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