Saints make it official, place Kelvin banks Jr. on injured reserve

Get well soon, Kelvin Banks Jr. The New Orleans Saints have made it official, placing their starting left tackle on injured reserve. He has a chance of returning before the season is over after going down with an ankle injury in Week 2’s road win over the Baltimore Ravens. While the best-case scenario for Banks has been described as a 10-week recovery from ankle surgery, that’s still going to sideline him for more than two months. Getting him back in December for a potential playoff push is a good goal to have in mind, but the big-picture objective is making sure Banks is back to 100%. He’s one of the youngest players on the team and already looks like a franchise cornerstone. It’ll take as long as it takes.

In the meantime, it looks like the Saints will lean on Asim Richards to hold it down on Tyler Shough’s blind side. The veteran swing tackle did well after Banks left the Ravens game, which was encouraging. The only lineman behind him is Alan Herron, a rookie free agent pickup from Maryland who is currently on the practice squad. Taliese Fuaga has struggled on the right side of the line and could be an option to move back to left tackle, but we’ll see. The Saints may want to keep him at his natural spot after he’s been moved around so often early in his career.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints make it official, place Kelvin banks Jr. on injured reserve