Injuries taking toll on defensive line

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 20, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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METAIRIE — Through the first four weeks of training camp and two preseason games, New Orleans Saints defensive tackles haven’t just been bitten by the injury bug. They’ve been swallowed by it.

Three of the six tackles currently on the roster — Hollis Thomas, Brian Young and Sedrick Ellis — didn’t participate in Tuesday’s practice. Thomas has a torn triceps muscle that is expected to sideline him until mid-October, Young has been bothered most of camp by knee and foot injuries and Ellis, the team’s first-round draft pick, has a bruised ankle.

On top of that, fifth-round draft pick DeMario Pressley is on injured reserve after fracturing his foot in the first week of practice. Even players that have been brought in for the injured — James Reed and Tim McGill — were also injured and are no longer in the mix.

That left veteran Kendrick Clancy and Antwan Lake, who have both been starters in their NFL careers, and first-year pro Orien Harris to carry on in practice although Ellis could be available for Saturday night’s exhibition game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

While they’re dangerously thin at the position, Clancy and Lake are nice fallbacks for Saints coach Sean Payton and first-year defensive line coach Ed Orgeron. Clancy has started 32 games in his first eight NFL seasons, while Lake has started 12 times in 68 career games.

“Those are guys with experience and we have some younger guys we can kick inside from the end position,” Payton said after Tuesday’s practice. “I think it’s fairly common that you go through stretches like this — you just don’t know what position it’s going to happen at.”

Still, neither Payton nor Orgeron could have known they would incur a rash of injuries and go through eight defensive tackles so far.

While no one wants to see teammates go down with injuries, Clancy and Lake have no choice but to step in and hold things down.

“It’s very rare, especially in this league, to lose that many guys in a short period of time and still have veterans guys to turn to,” Clancy said. “People made all kinds of trades for defensive tackles this season. But we’ve got some good players here and younger guys like Orien are stepping and showing that they belong in this league.

“It’s been a tough grind for him and for us,” he added, “but we’ve got some guys like that who really appreciate when they get a chance and get an opportunity to play.”

Even for a player like Lake, who was consistently singled out for his efforts in last year’s training camp and this year as well.

“It’s really rare. I have never in my life — and this is my seventh year in the league — seen so many people go down,” Lake said. “I’m knocking on wood and I know that Kendrick is too, that we can stay healthy and keep plugging away at this thing.

“We get tired out there, especially with the new coach (Orgeron) -— he’s a pistol,” he said. “Having us to fall back on is a good thing, but we have to try to stay focused and hopefully everybody can come back. We have to hold things down until they can come back.”