NFL Injury Report: How Saints Will Rebound from Marques Colston's Injury

It appears as though the Saints lost more than their opening game on Thursday night.

Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reports that receiver Marques Colston will be out for approximately four weeks with a broken collar bone.

Colston has been Drew Brees' best receiver since the two joined the Saints in 2006. In four of the five seasons, he's caught more than 70 passes for 1,000 or more yards, and seven or more touchdowns. The one exception was 2008, where Colston was limited to 11 games, but still caught 47 passes for 760 yards and five touchdowns.

Collarbone injuries tend to take a little longer to heal than originally expected. But for the sake of argument, let's say he misses the next four games and comes back on October 16 against Tampa Bay. These are the four games that Colston would miss:

September 18	vs. Chicago
September 25	vs. Houston
October 2	@ Jacksonville
October 9	@ Carolina

The games that appear to be the toughest in that run are Chicago and Houston. Those are both home games. How hard is it to see the Saints coming through the next four games at 3-1, or even 4-0?

That's a very plausible run.

Now, I don't want to minimize Colston's impact on the team. He's certainly a good receiver. In the opener against the Packers, Colston caught six passes for 81 yards. Still, they had five other players with 50 or more yards receiving.

Devery Henderson—6 catches, 100 yards, 1 TD

Darren Sproles—7 catches, 75 yards

Robert Meachem—5 catches, 70 yards, 1 TD

Jimmy Graham—4 catches, 56 yards, 1 TD

Mind you, that was without the services of Lance Moore, who was second only to Colston in terms of productivity in 2010. Moore is still questionable for the second game of the season against Chicago.

Brees is one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Another couple of years at the pace he's played at for the last five years should easily land him in the Hall of Fame. Those aren't the kind of quarterbacks that become too dependent on a single receiver.

Yes, top quarterbacks have their targets, but the opposing defenses know that. So, they are forced to go elsewhere. Given the Saints' depth at receiver, Brees will still have plenty of options and they will still score a lot of points.

Now, am I saying that the loss won't hurt? No, I am not saying that. Look at Colston's numbers, which have certainly contributed to New Orleans' success over recent years.

Still, this injury doesn't change my view that they will win the NFC South and at least make the NFC Championship Game.

The Saints have plenty of weapons in place to play good football in Colston's absence. When he returns, the team will only be better.