Injury woes..who’s your returner?

So this weekened against the Tampa Bay Yuckaneers, we have who returning punts? Not Reggie Bush, who’s out for the week, nor is it Lance Moore. Our other option is CB Tracy Porter, but wait..he’s gone too. Darren Sharper can do it with relish, but the way that guy is playing defense, forgetaboutit. That would leave us with our 5th option, Pierre Thomas, but with Bush out nobody wants to take that chance. So the task falls to Devery Henderson, who get this; has never returned a punt. I sure hope this thing doesn’t end up on ESPN highlights as someone like Ronde Barber does his endzone dance after taking a fumbled punt to the house.

If we were talking another week from now with the Patriots in town, we’d have a real issue and some real fingernail chewing and teeth gnashing would occur.

Earlier in the year if you had told me that Reggie Bush was going to miss the game, I’d have just yawned and said “so what?”. But now a resurgent Bush is looking like a real threat again, and he makes me wonder why I ever doubted him. Me thinks we will miss him this weekend, especially on third downs. Mike Bell will take his share of the load, but he’s not really a great third-down option, leaving Thomas to tote the rock most of the day. For fantasy owners a RB taking the bulk of the carries behind a pretty good OL is a goldmine, especially when facing the Buccaneers, who have allowed 167 rushing yards a game.

We will also miss Sedric Ellis again, and his loss has been complicated in the past few weeks with the loss of Scott Fujita. Anthony Hargrove is filling in nicely from a statistical view, but not from an NFL one. Ellis is a much better run-stuffer, and lets hope he’s back before the Patritos next week.

Of course, the bigger concern this weekend is the fact we are missing two corners. Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter will be watching from the sidelines, and Randal Gay and Usama Young will be filling in. Again, let’s just be glad we are facing those Buccaneers.