The New Orleans Saints are already working on bouncing back from a loss to begin the 2026 NFL season.
They certainly didn’t need such negative injury news to emerge Wednesday night.
Turns out that one of the Saints’ most reliable players is going to have to miss an extended length of time.
According to ESPN’s Katherine Terrell, Saints long-snapper Zach Wood could be out “about 4-6 weeks” with an injury.
Zach Wood Injury Update
Terrell reports that Wood has a Grade II calf strain.
She also explains that Wood wasn’t on the Wednesday injury report because it was only after experiencing some tightness in his calf and then undergoing tests that Wood was informed of the injury.
It’s likely that Wood will show up on the injury report on Thursday.
“The Saints did not try out long-snappers Wednesday but probably will need to bring in players for tryouts without a long-snapper on the practice squad,” Terrell writes. “Defensive tackle John Ridgeway III handled emergency long-snapping duties in training camp when Wood missed a practice while attending Drew Brees’ Hall of Fame ceremony in Canton, Ohio.”
Who is Zach Wood?
Wood is tied for the second-longest tenured Saints player.
Cameron Jordan has been around longer, and then Wood is tied with Alvin Kamara.
The cool thing about Wood is that he hasn’t missed a game in a Saints uniform. He signed in 2017 and has been available week in and week out.
If he misses Week 2 against the Ravens — and potentially upcoming games against the Raiders, Falcons, Vikings, Giants and Steelers — it’ll be a big loss for the Falcons.
It’s easy for fans to take the long-snapper for granted. The snaps on punts and kicks are almost always so perfect that it’s as if they just happened with no real input.
The long-snapper, though, is the guy coming through in those moments to be as reliable as possible.
It’s definitely a thankless position. A good long-snapper evades notice, because it means his snaps are getting exactly where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there.
A long-snapper in the spotlight is usually doing something wrong — or in this case, is a long-tenured player who is dealing with an uncertain injury.
Wood has learned how to deal with the pressure, the anxiety, the stress of being an NFL player. It has allowed him to become a bit more well-rounded in his approach, and it’s that stress management that could be key as Wood prepares to miss time with an injury.
The Saints will have to figure things out in the meantime. But eventually, Wood should get a chance to return and reclaim his spot. Most likely, that return won’t come soon enough for New Orleans.
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