The New Orleans Saints have a bit of a wide receiver crisis going into their Thursday Night Football showdown with the Denver Broncos.
Saints wide receivers Chris Olave (concussion) and Rashid Shaheed (knee) have both been ruled out for Week 7. That leaves Cedrick Wilson, Bub Means and Mason Tipton as their top remaining receivers going into TNF.
This is precisely the kind of scenario that prompts a team to call up help from their practice squad. New Orleans has four receivers on its practice squad to choose from, but there’s a notable omission.
Earlier this month, the Saints cut former sixth-round draft pick A.T. Perry, likely with the hope that he would return on the practice squad. After clearing waivers, though, Perry opted to instead join Denver’s practice squad.
“We weren’t going to claim him [off waivers], but we sure would like to recruit him to come to the practice squad,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said when asked about Perry last week. “He’s long with good hands. … [I] had a chance to meet him. Again [he’s] a young player we want to develop.”
Payton could really pour salt in New Orleans’ wound by elevating Perry from the practice squad to the game-day roster for TNF. On a night when they will be missing their top two receivers, the Saints might regret letting Perry get away.