Saints benching Shockey?

As Drew Brees frantically and futilely tried to pass the Saints back into contention against the Falcons on Sunday, Jeremy Shockey, the club's high-profile offseason acquisition, found himself in a strange and decidedly low-profile place: on the sideline. In the desperate fourth-quarter finish, Brees completed a remarkable 19 passes for 294 yards and two touchdowns. None of them was to Shockey. The Saints ran 36 plays in the fourth quarter -- the equivalent of a normal half -- and Shockey was on the field for three of them. The official explanation was that Shockey had left the game with an injury, and indeed Shockey's right ankle was swollen with fluid in the postgame locker room. But that didn't explain Shockey's absence on the drive before the injury, which occurred on the second drive of the fourth quarter. On the Saints' first possession of the fourth quarter, Billy Miller played almost every down at tight end. "We rotated (Shockey) and Billy because of the nature of what we were doing route-wise," Saints Coach Sean Payton said. If that was the case, the only rotation I saw was Miller rotating in and Shockey rotating to the sideline. Afterward, Shockey said anyone who thought he was out of the game for any reason other than his injury "was wrong." But clearly he was out of the game for some reason.

(cnnsi.com)