Saints Clips
Saints running back Alvin Kamara appears to be on track to play against the Ravens in Week 2.
Kamara did not play in the season opener because of the knee injury he suffered in August, but head coach Kellen Moore said at a Wednesday press conference that he “probably could have gone” but didn’t have enough practice time after returning to the field earlier in the week. Moore said that the Saints “feel good” about Kamara being able to play this week.
Defensive end Cam Jordan (hamstring) also missed the opener and was a limited participant in practice. Tight end Oscar Delp (hamstring) was also listed as limited.
Tight end Juwan Johnson (illness) and linebacker Isaiah Stalbird (shoulder) were full participants on Wednesday.
The Ravens had six players out of practice on Wednesday.
Wide receiver Zay Flowers (hamstring) was not a surprise member of that group after he was forced out of last Sunday’s win over the Colts, but linebacker Trey Hendrickson and left tackle Ronnie Stanley were notable inclusions. Hendrickson is listed with a finger injury while a toe was given as the reason for Stanley to sit out.
Defensive lineman Calais Campbell (rest), left guard John Simpson (groin), and cornerback T.J. Tampa (knee) made up the rest of the list. Tampa was injured during the win over the Colts.
Linebacker Teddye Buchanan (knee), safety Keondre Jackson (shoulder), and defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike (neck) were listed as limited. Safety Jaylinn Hawkins (chest) and wide receiver Devontez Walker (groin) were the team’s full participants.
With the Broncos seemingly concerned that their contact with Drew Brees prior to the AFC Championship could put them in a tampering jackpot, we decided to ask the league whether the specific situation runs afoul of the rules.
The NFL declined comment.
It’s not clear what that means. If it’s a nothing burger, the league easily could have said so.
The problem for the Broncos is that the NFL enforces the tampering rules unpredictably and sporadically. More often than not, the league looks the other way. During the days of rampant tampering in and around the Scouting Combine, the NFL rarely does anything about it.
Sometimes, however, the NFL decides to make an example out of someone. In this case, the effort to feed ESPN an interesting story for the first Monday night pregame show of the season has also handed the league enough evidence to take action, if it chooses to do so.
The only question remaining is whether the NFL will choose to do so.
Again, it doesn’t take a complaint from the team that holds a player’s rights. The Dolphins were hammered for tampering with Sean Payton and Tom Brady, based on evidence the NFL tripped over during an unrelated investigation.
Here, the evidence fell into the NFL’s laps. Thanks to a report that pushed the idea that the Broncos contacted Brees at a time when he remained on the Saints’ reserve-retired list.
On Monday, Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that the Broncos talked to quarterback Drew Brees about joining the team for the AFC Championship, without acknowledging that Brees’s status on the Saints’ reserve-retired list made the move impossible.
What is possible, based on Schefter’s report, is a tampering case against the Broncos.
Schefter reported that former Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and former Broncos offensive assistant Pete Carmichael spoke to Brees about a potential unretirement. Brees has since told Ed Werder that the former Saints assistants contacted Brees about the possibility. On Tuesday, Broncos coach Sean Payton offered a different version regarding who called whom.
“Drew had reached out, I think, right after the championship or right after the playoff win against Buffalo,” Payton told reporters. “I think he called Pete, probably texted Pete or Joe, those guys. None of it even came to my attention. So, when the story came up in Canton, I kept thinking they were just talking about the COVID season. Even in the COVID season when he and I discussed possibly coming back for a Monday night game, he had trouble throwing it. So, I don’t think really anything really came of it. I think in Drew’s mind, there’s that competitor in him. So, I was kind of out of the loop. I don’t think it’s a big story, but nonetheless, certainly one that once they described it to me, it just never got to my level, I guess. He had reached out to Pete, I think, and then Joe.”
Payton is smart. Very smart. The last thing he needs is the league office thinking the Broncos reached out to a player who is technically under contract with the Saints, without permission from the Saints. Even if the Saints don’t file a tampering complaint, the league can act without one. For example, the NFL whacked the Dolphins in 2022 for tampering after it stumbled over evidence that Miami had tampered with Payton and Tom Brady while investigating an unrelated matter.
And while it technically doesn’t matter if Lombardi and/or Carmichael contacted Brees or Brees contacted them, the situation has a different vibe if someone from the Broncos made the first move without first realizing that Brees wasn’t and isn’t a free agent.
Time will tell if the league does anything about it. The Broncos’ effort to recast the interaction as being initiated by Brees suggests that, at some level, the Broncos are concerned about coming under the inconsistent and unpredictable scrutiny of Big Shield.
On Monday night, a report emerged that multiple Broncos coaches had reached out to retired quarterback Drew Brees about the possibility of joining the Broncos for the AFC Championship after starter Bo Nix suffered a season-ending foot injury.
The report overlooked key details, such as Brees no longer being able to throw with his right arm. Most importantly, it ignored the fact that it would have been impossible to sign Brees, since he remains on the Saints’ reserve-retired list. (There’s also a tampering issue arising from the report that then-offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and offensive assistant Pete Carmichael contacted Brees, presumably without permission from the Saints.)
Coach Sean Payton was asked if he had a comment on the report, following the Week 1 loss to the Chiefs.
“No, I just know I was the odd man out, and I never heard anything about it, so it never came to anything,” Payton told reporters. “I was only told about it later. I didn’t; I was just like you guys.”
Even without Payton directly contacting Brees, a potential tampering issue arises if Lombardi and Carmichael did indeed contact Brees without permission from the Saints.
The broader point for any retired player is this: Find a way to get released, so that you can return at any time. That’s why Philip Rivers was able to rejoin the Colts late last year. Placement on the reserve-retired list complicates a potential return to play for another team — especially since he’d have to pass through waivers before signing, if his current team is willing to release him from the reserve-retired list.
Sometimes, facts get in the way of a good story.
On Monday night, Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that quarterback Drew Brees considered emerging from retirement to play for the Broncos in the AFC Championship, given the injury that happened to starter Bo Nix late in the divisional-round win over the Bills.
There’s only one problem with that. Brees, as PFT has confirmed, remains on the Saints’ reserve-retired list. A retired player must return by the Tuesday after Week 13 in any given year. After that, he can’t play for anyone.
Then there’s the fact that the Saints would have had to release Brees from the reserve-retired list. He then would have been subject to waivers.
That doesn’t mean the Broncos didn’t talk to Brees, as Schefter reports. If, however, then-offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and offensive assistant Pete Carmichael spoke to Brees without permission from the Saints, it would have been tampering.
Which leads to the next question. Will the league investigate the Broncos for tampering, based on Schefter’s report? Even without a complaint from the Saints, the league could take action.
It never got to the point at which the Broncos or Brees realized that the rules would block the move, because Brees had “discomfort” in his wrist. Then there’s the fact that Brees has said he can’t throw at all with his right arm due to his shoulder injury from 2005 — and that he throws better with his left.
So while the whole thing sounds good, it’s a big, fat nothing burger which, if anything, will get the Broncos in hot water for tampering with a player whose rights remain with another team.
Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers was on his way to a monster day against the Colts, but his hamstring kept him from building on his big start to the 2026 season.
Flowers had been bothered by a hamstring injury leading up to Week 1, although it didn’t stop him from catching five passes for 150 yards and a touchdown in the first 25 minutes of the game. He aggravated the injury at some point, however, and did not play at all over the rest of the 41-23 Baltimore victory.
PFT reported on Sunday that Flowers was considered questionable for Week 2 and head coach Jesse Minter said the same during his Monday press conference.
“Zay’s probably a little bit more like in the day-to-day range,” Minter said. “Feel pretty good about where that’s at, we’ll see how the week goes though.”
Rookie wideout Ja’Kobi Lane also left the win and a report on Sunday said he was believed to have a fracture. Minter said that they are still evaluating Lane’s injury, but that it looks like he will be out for a longer period of time than Flowers.
When the Saints scored a touchdown against the Lions with 1:34 remaining in overtime on Sunday, they could have kicked the extra point to tie the game, then hoped that either their defense could get the ball back so they could win, or at least hold the Lions’ offense to preserve a tie. Instead, Saints head coach Kellen Moore decided to go for two, and end the game right there, one way or the other.
The way it ended was the Saints lost: Tyler Shough’s two-point conversion pass was incomplete out the back of the end zone, and the Saints walked off the field 0-1. After the game, Moore said he thinks he made the right call.
“There was 1:34 left. That’s a really talented offense. We had a chance to go win the football game,” Moore said. “I really viewed it as we’re going for two there to win the game, if we have a chance.”
The Saints also decided to kick off at the start of overtime, thinking they’d rather get the ball second and know what they have to do. Deciding to kick at the start of overtime played into the decision to go for two at the end of overtime: Because the Saints had the second possession, Moore knew what his team had to do, and what his team had to do was score a two-point conversion. It didn’t work, but Moore still thinks it was the right call.
On Sunday in Detroit, an apparent Jared Goff fumble that was picked up and returned for a Saints touchdown was overturned on replay. Lions head coach Dan Campbell was pleasantly surprised.
Campbell admitted after the game that while watching the play, he thought Goff fumbled. He didn’t realize until the officials explained it to him that Goff starting his throwing motion made it an incomplete pass, even though the ball traveled backward after it was knocked out of Goff’s hand.
“I’ll take that one. I’ll be the first to say, I thought we lost that one. The arm was going forward, it had a forward motion, that was how they saw it. We got one. We’ll take that,” Campbell said.
The replay ruling was correct, but counterintuitive: It would seem that when a quarterback throws the ball backward, that makes it a backward pass. Under NFL rules, however, if the quarterback has started a forward throwing motion, it’s a forward pass even if a defender hits the quarterback mid-throw to send the ball backward. That was a rule many people learned for the first time on Sunday. Including Campbell.
The Ravens will be without one of their key rookies for some time.
Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, Ja’Kobi Lane is believed to have suffered a fractured wrist in Sunday’s season-opening victory over the Colts. Lane will undergo more testing on Monday, including an MRI, to fully diagnose the injury.
Lane had one catch for 11 yards before he exited the contest.
The Ravens also lost receiver Zay Flowers during the contest, as he aggravated the hamstring injury he suffered during training camp.
Baltimore will play New Orleans in Week 2.
