Marshon Lattimore leaves Saints game vs. Washington with ankle injury

The Saints had to go without their star cornerback for a a while, but he would return. Upon coming back, he re-injured his ankle.

Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore is questionable to return with an ankle injury against Washington, the team announced.

After sitting the second quarter, he was able to return in the second half before re-injuring himself. Lattimore suffered the injury in the first quarter when a Washington player landed on his ankle.

What does this mean for the Saints? This is one of the worst injuries this team could have outside of Drew Brees. Lattimore has already become one of the game’s best cornerbacks in his rookie season, helping anchor a Saints defense that has been surprisingly effective this season.

He came into Sunday’s game with 31 tackles, which is an incredible number considering how few quarterbacks have targeted him as the season has progressed.

Lattimore was expected to be good, but he’s been great. It’s why he was Dan Kadar’s top cornerback coming out of the 2017 draft class:

Lattimore is one of the draft's five best prospects. He's also one of the draft's biggest gambles. Because of injuries he only played a season and a half at Ohio State because of a hamstring injury in 2015. He had a breakout 2016 season in which he had 41 tackles and four interceptions. He's a stellar athlete with speed and the agility to stick with receivers down the field. Ohio State used him on both sides of the field, and he used a man technique where he didn't jam a lot but reacted. For him, it worked. He has good hands for the position, times his jumps to break up passes properly, and is willing to come up and tackle. He could due with adding some bulk to his frame in the NFL, and some instinctual things (picking up fakes and double moves) should get better with more experience.

The Saints had a glimmer of hope with Lattimore returning, but after re-injuring his ankle, the Saints kept him out for the rest of the game.

If there’s good news to be had, he seemed optimistic after the team’s win:

We’ll find out later the extent of Lattimore’s injury.