Before their Week 13 game against the Miami Dolphins, the New Orleans Saints were mostly healthy and had many of their key offensive players available. This did not lead to a win, but the Saints stayed competitive and nearly pulled off the upset.
During Sunday’s game, additional injuries came up, and now, heading into their Week 14 clash against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, health is once again not on the Saints’ side.
Saints’ First Injury Report of the Week
As mentioned, the Saints were able to get some of their essential players back on Sunday, specifically WR Chris Olave and OT Taliese Fuaga. Both players looked healthy throughout the game, but Fuaga appeared to get hurt near the end of the fourth quarter. This was definitely a concern, and it seems worth monitoring throughout the week.
In today’s practice, Fuaga, Olave, RB Alvin Kamara, and S Justin Reid did not participate because of injuries. For Fuaga, this was a new ankle injury. He had the same injury earlier this year but on the other ankle. Olave is dealing with the back spasms he had last week. Kamara remains out with his knee and ankle injury, and Reid was quickly ruled out of the Dolphins game with a knee injury.
First Saints-Bucs practice report of the week pic.twitter.com/jyZ34lnYNX
— Mike Triplett (@MikeTriplett) December 3, 2025
When Reid went out against the Dolphins, his absence was not felt because the team was already struggling in the passing game, but his potential absence against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be a serious problem for the Saints.
Reid has struggled this season, as evidenced by his overall ranking of 65th in PFSN’s Safety Impact Metric. However, his impact on this defense may be less about his play on the field and more about the leadership he brings.
Reid is one of the captains on this team, and with how young this DB room is, he is the leader of the group. Without him, there is a void, and the potential for mistakes from the DBs increases.
In his absence, S Terrell Burgess should be the starter, but Jordan Howden could also be an option.