Saints Place LB James Laurinaitis On I.R. & Waive OT Khalif Barnes

The New Orleans Saints have officially placed LB James Laurinaitis on injured reserve on Saturday and promoted DE Chris McCain to their active roster.

  • The Saints also waived OT Khalif Barnes again.
  • New Orleans activated rookie DL Sheldon Rankins from injured reserve. (NFLTR)

Laurinaitis had been dealing with a quad injury.

Laurinaitis, 29, is a former second-round pick of the Rams back in 2009. After seven years with the Rams, Laurinaitis signed a three-year, $8.25 million contract with the Saints back in March. He stands to make a base salary of $900,000 for the 2016 season.

This year, Laurinaitis has appeared in five games for the Saints and recorded 17 tackles, a fumble recovery and a pass defense. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 87 linebacker out of 87 qualifying players.

Barnes, 34, is a former second-round pick by the Jaguars of the 2005 NFL Draft. He spent four years with Jacksonville before signing with the Raiders in 2009.

After seven years in Oakland, Barnes signed a one-year contract with the Saints late in the preseason. Unfortunately, he was among their final roster cuts close to a month ago.

Barnes has been on and off of the Saints’ roster several times this season.

In 2015, Barnes appeared in 14 games for the Raiders but was limited to playing just 118 snaps.

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