With Luke Johnson Good morning, Saints fans. Welcome back to Saints Insider, the newsletter powered by The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate. Playoff football is right around the corner in New Orleans, and Thursday was filled with (mostly) good news for the Saints faithful. Start with the latest — superstar running back Alvin Kamara all but declared that he will be on the field with his squad Sunday with a tweet he sent out Thursday evening, and shortly after the Saints' rising young defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson sent out a tweet of his own saying the same. Neither were on the field last week after landing on the reserve/COVID list. While Kamara will still be barred from participating in person at the Saints facility on Airline Drive in Metairie this week, he opened the door for some hope that he will still manage to play when the Superdome lights come on. They are not the only reinforcements that appear to be on their way. Two key Saints players were full participants at Saints practice Thursday after starting the week in limited capacity — but one more big-name pass rusher was held out of practice Thursday. Also, receiver Emmanuel Sanders shared what he's learned about the city he's come to call home in the last few months, which he did while using a colorful anecdote about grandpa shoes. Trust me, it'll make sense. Finally, what's the only thing better than making January predictions about what's to come this year? Looking back at all those predictions that went wrong last year. Our columnist Rod Walker takes a look back at those heady days when the word "quarantine" was not a part of our every day vocabulary. Thanks as always for reading, and feel free to let us know what you think of the coverage as the Saints get set to make their big playoff push. We've got a lot of great stuff coming down the pipe this weekend, so stay tuned. Luke Are you a NOLA.com subscriber? If you are, thanks so much. But if you’re not, we’ve got a great offer for you. Check it out! |