New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma appears likely to miss his first game due to injury since he joined the Saints in 2008. He's listed as doubtful for Sunday's game against the Houston Texans after missing practice again on Friday with an unspecified knee injury.
Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma.
Losing the three-time Pro Bowler would be a big blow to the Saints, especially against a potent and balanced offensive team like the Texans. But the Saints do have faith in experienced backup Jo-Lonn Dunbar, who played well last week against the Chicago Bears.
"I think we feel real good about our depth," Saints Coach Sean Payton said. "It's no different than any other injury. It's the next guy up to step in. (Dunbar) has prepared well, and he's had a good week of practice, so he'll be ready."
Although the Saints were optimistic early in the week that Vilma would be able to return to the practice field, Payton said Vilma didn't suffer any specific setback.
"It just hasn't come back as quickly as we had hoped, and we'll see how it is tomorrow," Payton said.
Dunbar said he is fully prepared to start in Vilma's place - but he's not yet ready to rule him out. Vilma came back in the second half last week against Chicago after originally suffering the injury in the first half.
"This guy has been immortal for like three years," Dunbar said. "And this guy, when he hurts something, he still plays. That's just the way he is. He's a complete warrior.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he does (play). If he doesn't, then we all need to pick it up and run this thing as if he were here."
Dunbar (6 feet, 226 pounds) has started 14 games in his career, most of them at strong-side linebacker where he split the starting job with Danny Clark last year. He started last week's game as an extra inside linebacker in the Saints' 3-4 formation and made an instant impact.
During the first seven minutes, he assisted on a tackle of Bears tailback Matt Forte for a 1-yard gain, then stopped Forte for a 4-yard loss and a zero-yard gain.
Dunbar spent time at both middle linebacker and outside linebacker as the game went on, finishing with six tackles and just one "M.E." (mental error) by defensive coordinator Gregg Williams' count.
"He'll be ready to go if we have to pull the trigger, and I feel real confident in him. He's real smart," Williams said of Dunbar. "(He's got) instincts. You can't coach instincts. You can't coach the anticipation of knowing what the offense is going to do before it happens, and he has got those kind of instincts, like Jon does and a lot of those really good just nose-for-the-ball linebackers. He made a lot of really good, instinctive plays the other day."
Dunbar, who originally joined the Saints as an undrafted free agent out of Boston College in 2008, had a career-high 50 tackles last year, including a career-best 13 of them against Atlanta in Week 3.
He re-signed with the Saints as a free agent in August after the Saints let him know they wanted to move him back to middle linebacker. Although that meant playing behind Vilma when the Saints are in their base 4-3 defense, Dunbar was fired up about the move. He considers middle linebacker his most natural position, where he played in college.
Dunbar was fired up about this season, in general. He said he worked out harder than ever before this offseason when he joined Vilma and Saints tight end Jimmy Graham at their former college, the University of Miami.
"I think it was a huge offseason," Dunbar said. "In terms of working out, I never put myself through that type of workouts, day in and day out. So that was good. And then I think I understood the defense more this year, just in terms of what everyone's doing, what I'm doing, and now understanding what offenses are doing to attack us. So I think I've grown a lot in this last offseason or so."
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