The New Orleans Saints are making a big change in their secondary on Sunday Night Football: per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, starting cornerback Ken Crawley will be inactive when the team kicks off against the Minnesota Vikings.
This comes off the heels of New Orleans trading for New York Giants cornerback Eli Apple, who will start in Crawley’s place. The Saints’ timing of that trade now makes more sense: it allowed Apple to participate in three full practices and a walkthrough session, plus spend time in the classroom learning the playbook. There’s little chance that he’s absorbed the full thing in time for this Vikings game, but the Saints must believe he’s picked up enough to be a positive asset.