The New Orleans Saints will be without their 2020 team sack leader this Sunday. Defensive end Trey Hendrickson has reaggravated his neck injury and will miss Sunday’s Wild Card round game with the Chicago Bears.
Hendrickson was limited for practice on Wednesday. The neck injury reportedly flared up during Wednesday’s practice, forcing Hendrickson to sit out Thursday and Friday entirely. The team released the injury report late Friday afternoon, ruling Hendrickson out of Sunday’s Wild Card contest.
Trey Hendrickson Injury Rules Him Out for New Orleans Saints
Hendrickson suffered a stinger in the Saints Week 15 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The injury forced him to miss the team’s Week 16 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Christmas Day. However, Hendrickson returned and recorded a sack last week. Now having aggravated the stinger, he will miss an opportunity to take his standout regular season play into the postseason.
Hendrickson racked up a career-high 13.5 sacks in a breakout campaign for the former third-round pick. He had the second-most sacks in the league and is a massive loss to a Saints defense who had the eighth-most total sacks during the regular season. Hendrickson was critical to that production.
Impact for New Orleans Saints
Cameron Jordan will once again shoulder the responsibility as the team’s primary pass rusher. Jordan was second on the team in sacks with 7.5, while defensive tackle David Onyemata tallied 6.5.
New Orleans will also miss Hendrickson’s presence in the run game. The Saints ranked second in rushing touchdowns allowed and fifth in rushing yards allowed.
New Orleans Saints Injury Roundup
Aside from Hendrickson, there was little negative news reported Friday for the Saints. Guard Nick Easton will miss Sunday’s game with a concussion as expected.
Quarterback Taysom Hill (concussion) and Marcus Williams (ankle) both practiced fully on Friday and are good to go against the Bears. Wide receiver Michael Thomas remains on injured reserve and did not feature on the teams’ injury report. Moreover, Thomas needs to be activated from injured reserve by Saturday afternoon if he is to feature against Chicago.
