The New Orleans Saints are in what feels close to a must-win situation in Week 5 of the 2026 NFL season. They’re on home on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
The Saints have begun the year 1-3, and there’s one outcome that feels a lot better than another in this setup.
There’s a problem, though: The Saints are sick.
What’s Wrong With The Saints?
The Saints apparently have a “major sickness” running through the team, according to beat reporter Nick Underhill.
This is what Underhill posted on X on Sunday morning:
Subplot for today: There’s a major sickness running through the locker room. See how it impacts things.
— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) October 11, 2026
This wasn’t something that was reported upon earlier in the week. It seems to have shown up this weekend.
Who is Sick?
The toughest part of this is that there’s no obvious way to know who is sick.
The Saints didn’t do anything unusual with their active-inactive list. If there had been an odd scratch, it might’ve pointed to sickness as an issue, but there wasn’t.
They also didn’t make any late adds to their injury report, which some teams do in this spot.
The best way to answer this question may simply be to watch which players have different usage on Sunday than they normally do.
It’s fair to wonder if a practice squad elevation like Cedric Tillman is going to get more time than usual — because elevating a WR is a choice that a team wouldn’t necessarily make without knowing they’d actually throw to that guy. But that’s just speculation.
Some players can push through illness and have good games anyway, so it’s not even a guarantee to keep guys off the field. It’s just a bit of adversity the Saints didn’t really need given where they stand in the season.
Alvin Kamara Good News
The Saints did get some good news on Sunday morning, too.
They’ll have Alvin Kamara active as their RB1 after he was questionable entering Sunday.
Kamara was dealing with a back injury, and it limited him in practice.
The Saints clearly feel he can do most of what they need him to, or they wouldn’t have let him be active.
It also suggests Kamara may not be too sick — because a back injury plus an illness may not have been worth risking for New Orleans.
What’s Wrong With Saints? ‘Sickness’ News Raises Huge Week 5 Worry