METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints are still hoping to get offensive stars Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas back in the lineup for Sunday's playoff opener against the Chicago Bears.
But they ruled out one of their top defensive playmakers, defensive end Trey Hendrickson, with a neck injury on Friday.
Hendrickson has been one of the NFL's bigger surprise breakouts this year with a team-high 13.5 sacks. He originally suffered the injury in Week 15 and did not play in Week 16. But he returned to play in Week 17 and practiced on a limited basis Wednesday before being sidelined on Thursday and Friday.
The Saints' No. 4-ranked defense does have good depth at DE, however. They have two experienced starters in perennial Pro Bowler Cameron Jordan and Marcus Davenport. And young backup Carl Granderson has provided some juice with four sacks in the past five weeks.
The Saints also ruled out veteran guard Nick Easton with a concussion. But the rest of their injury report has been looking up this week. Nickel safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Friday. Starting safety Marcus Williams (ankle), versatile backup quarterback Taysom Hill (concussion) and veteran tight end Josh Hill (hand) are all also expected to return from injuries.
Kamara (reserve/COVID-19), Thomas (ankle) and receiver/return specialist Deonte Harris (neck) aren't on the daily injury reports because all three are still on reserve lists. However, signs continue to point to all three of them returning to the lineup on Sunday, as well.
Thomas and Harris both returned to practice Wednesday after spending the past three weeks on injured reserve. Coach Sean Payton has declined to give an official status on Thomas for this week's game, but he previously explained that the plan was to rest Thomas for three weeks to get him as close to 100% as possible for the playoffs. And quarterback Drew Brees said Sunday night that, "I know we get Mike Thomas back -- I think the last three weeks being down have been great for him."
Kamara, meanwhile, is not eligible to return from the reserve/COVID-19 list until Sunday, which means he has not been able to practice all week and can't even stay at the team hotel on Saturday night. However, Kamara suggested on Twitter Thursday night that he expects to be cleared to play.
A source told ESPN's Adam Schefter that Kamara has been watching practices remotely through a live video feed at his home, with Payton mic'd up to guide Kamara through the plays.
"There's a live video cam, and we've had a number of things. But I don't want that to be the big story, because we still have to wait and see if he's able to play," Payton said Friday. "Obviously we've got the Zoom technology [to allow Kamara to participate in meetings], the practice video, all of those things. And it really helps that he's an extremely intelligent player."