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Injuries defined the game the last time the Falcons and Saints played, and it appears that they may well play a role again on Sunday. That’s because the Saints were forced to put safety Kenny Vaccaro on injured reserve.
Vaccaro has had an up-and-down career for New Orleans and is not a lock to return to the team when his contract expires at the end of the season, but he was having arguably the best season of his career, though it was marred by injury. He was one of the many players knocked out of the Falcons-Saints game last time around, and now he’ll be shelved the rest of the year.
#Saints S Kenny Vaccaro is going on Injured Reserve, sources say. Crazy to think he’s been playing on an adductor completely torn off the bone, as well as an injured wrist. He’ll need surgery to fix both. Big loss for New Orleans.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 21, 2017
This isn’t a catastrophic loss for the Saints, who have very good safety depth, but it’s always a problem when you can’t bring your full defense to bear against what is theoretically one of the better offenses in football. If the Falcons get rolling a bit, the absence of Vaccaro could well play a role in the outcome, which wouldn’t be the most unwelcome outcome for the Atlanta Falcons.