Estime Goes on IR, and the Backfield Gets Thinner

Audric Estime is on injured reserve, one more name added to a list that has been growing since late July. The Saints placed him there ahead of Week 1, and signed Treyton Welch to fill the roster spot.

The timing is lousy, though at this point that's the offseason in a sentence. New Orleans came into the summer with genuine optimism about its backfield — Alvin Kamara back for a tenth season, Travis Etienne Jr. signed as a complement, the run game positioned as an anchor for whatever the passing offense became. Then Kamara sprained his MCL in a joint practice and spent the final weeks of the preseason listed as questionable. Etienne is active and ready. The names behind him are thinner than the front office would have drawn it up.

Welch shows up in the injury report as active, which is something. The depth chart at running back currently lists Kendre Miller and CJ Donaldson behind Etienne, with Kamara's availability still uncertain heading into the opener. That's a workable group if everyone stays healthy — it's a shaky one if anything else goes sideways.

The Saints have been managing around the edges of a roster crisis for weeks now. This is another edge.