Injured reserve is a possibility for New Orleans Saints starting safety

The New Orleans Saints defense took a hit when starting safety Will Harris went down with a hamstring injury in Monday night’s game with the Kansas City Chiefs, and he missed the next two days of practice recovering from that ailment.

But he isn’t trending in the right direction. On Wednesday, head coach Dennis Allen said that Harris is a candidate for injured reserve because of this hamstring injury. Assuming it isn’t an automatic season-ending diagnosis, he would be eligible to return after four weeks — missing upcoming games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, and Carolina Panthers. That’s assuming he won’t need surgery and be out longer.

Either way, it was a big loss. Harris was the only player on the team who had been on the field for 100% of the Saints’ snaps on defense through their first four games. That’s more than Demario Davis, Tyrann Mathieu, and other big names like Chase Young, Marshon Lattimore, and Cameron Jordan. They were lucky to have already called up Johnathan Abram from the practice squad so he could fill in.

In the meantime, the Saints are left with Mathieu, Jordan Howden and J.T. Gray on the 53-man roster with Abram and Millard Bradford on the practice squad. Abram can be elevated for two more games before he’ll need to sign with the 53-man roster to keep playing, but they may just sign him now to ensure he’ll be in the lineup. Stay tuned.