Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Saints Nation: Saints Make a Couple Roster Moves
Per NFL.com's transaction page, the Saints brought back fullback Kyle Eckel to the active roster and signed tight end Tory Humphrey. Humphrey is a 4th year player with 11 career receptions, all last year with the Green Bay Packers.
To make room for them, the only official move at this point is that fullback Marcus Mailei (pictured) has been placed on injured reserve. I'm not sure how he injured himself, but he did make a tackle on special teams last week in limited action. No word yet on the other move that was made to make space for Humphrey. Check back to Saints Nation for an update once it's confirmed.
Personally, this move scares me. The fullback trade is kind of a "whatever" move since David Thomas is the de-facto fullback these days, but the tight end addition scares me. It tells me Jeremy Shockey's injury is serious enough that they're probably going to hold him out for the final two games of the season. Turf toe can be a problematic injury. The Saints have lots of banged up players that may not be ready until the first playoff game. My fear is they'll be rusty and not adjusted to game speed, but at the end of the day it's best to hold them out to make sure they'll be close to 100% when it matters most.