Friday’s ruling by an appeals panel overturning the suspensions of the four players suspended as part of the Saints bounty probe means many things, but, most immediately, it means the four players are eligible to play this weekend.
Anthony Hargrove doesn’t have a team at the moment and Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma is recovering from knee problems, so we don’t anticipate seeing either one of them on the field. Saints defensive end Will Smith is expected to play against the Redskins and Browns linebacker Scott Fujita is now eligible to play as well after the Browns put him back on the active roster Friday.
Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon-Journal reports that a Browns spokesman announced that the team received a roster exemption for Fujita. That allows the Browns to carry 54 men, so no one had to get cut right now to make room for Fujita. Long before Friday’s decision, Fujita insisted that he would play against the Eagles and it sounds like that would be fine with coach Pat Shurmur even though Fujita didn’t practice at all this week.
“We’ve got up until right before game time to put the roster together, but I don’t see any reason why he can’t play,” Shurmur said.
The only big reason disappeared on Friday so there’s a good chance we’ll see Fujita on Sunday.