Sean Payton hopeful Marcus Davenport can suit up for Week 4 at Lions

There was some hope that New Orleans Saints defensive end Marcus Davenport would make his 2020 debut on Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers after missing the first two games with an elbow injury, but the Saints remained patient with him. Davenport practiced just twice — on a limited basis — last week, and watched the Saints and Packers play in a tracksuit.

With star defensive end Cameron Jordan being outplayed by Davenport’s backup, Trey Hendrickson, the Saints could use all the help they can get. And Saints coach Sean Payton is optimistic they’ll get a boost soon.

“Hopefully we have Davenport back this week,” Payton said in his Monday morning conference call.

Davenport’s return would be useful. The Saints have only made seven sacks on the year so far, tied with a crowd of teams for the 11th-most in the NFL. But they haven’t taken over a possession with their pass rush except for a Las Vegas Raiders drive in the first quarter, when they sacked Derek Carr twice on subsequent downs. Las Vegas kept him clean for the next 47 minutes of regulation.

New Orleans brought down Aaron Rodgers just once in Week 3, when he failed to adjust the protection to a blitzing Demario Davis. It simply isn’t good enough production for a defense stocked with so much talent.

So we’ll be hoping right along with Payton, and keeping an eye on this week’s injury report. If Davenport can turn in three full days of practice and get back in the lineup, he could make a huge difference. There’s no doubting his talent, and his coaches raved on the progress he made as a technician in training camp; his only real flaw at this stage in his career is availability.