C.J. Spiller Injury Update: RB Out for Week 1 While Recovering from Knee Surgery

The New Orleans Saints faced a difficult enough task opening the season against an Arizona Cardinals squad that made the playoffs last year, but now they must do so without the services of running back C.J. Spiller thanks to a knee surgery.

Continue for updates.

---

Spiller Could Return in Week 2

Tuesday, Sept. 8

While losing Spiller for the first week is less than ideal for the Saints, they received some good news, per the update from Ian Rapoport of NFL.com: “RB C.J. Spiller (knee) will not play in Week 1, I’m told, as he recovers from that minor knee surgery. Likely good to go after that.”     

Surgery is always a red flag when it comes to health concerns, but it looks like Spiller will be on the field soon. Nick Underhill of the New Orleans Advocate noted a Week 2 return would be critical for the Saints offense:

This is not the first time injuries popped up for Spiller. He only played in nine games last year and missed the stretch run with a broken collarbone.

He tallied 300 rushing yards, 125 receiving yards and two total touchdowns (one off a kickoff return) last season for the Buffalo Bills but is not far removed from a 2012 campaign that saw him make the Pro Bowl behind 1,244 rushing yards, 459 receiving yards and eight total touchdowns.

New Orleans is looking for production like that and will try to get him in the open field so his speed and shiftiness can take over as he makes defenders miss.

Fortunately for the Saints, they have enough pieces to cover for Spiller if he truly does only miss a single week of action. Mark Ingram tallied 964 rushing yards and a career-high nine touchdowns last year. What’s more, the absence of Spiller (who has the ability to get involved in the passing game) could help Ingram develop his receiving skills.

The former Alabama running back wants to earn more trust from quarterback Drew Brees this year, per Mike Triplett of ESPN.com:

"

I don't think he was like, ‘Oh there's Mark, I'm going somewhere else.' But I think he's more confident in me in that area. I've been working with him all OTAs and for five years now. And he's seen the improvement that I've made in just running my routes, things like that. So when he sees me out there in a passing situation, I think he's more aware that I'm there now.

"

Elsewhere, rookie Marcus Murphy and youngster Khiry Robinson are high-upside players who could take advantage of a short-term opportunity against an Arizona defense that finished a solid but unspectacular 13th in the league against the run a season ago.

The Saints will miss Spiller in Week 1, but it is more important that he returns to the field healthy for the remainder of the year.