"It's a hard, tough injury. You just got to hope it heals up, and go back to work when it does," he said after practice.

Lamar Smith will start in Williams' place. "We're going to play some different people, but Lamar's the key guy. Lamar's the No. 1 guy," Ditka said.

Williams could be out as long as three games. "That's always a possibility. I don't like it, but it's always a possibility," the coach added.

Williams, the player the Saints traded eight draft picks to get, injured the toe in last Sunday's 41-23 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ditka said the latest injury is the worst for Williams, who sprained his ankle twice and hyperextended his right elbow earlier in the season.

"The toe is the worst, because you saw how long it took Deion Sanders to get over it. I saw Calvin Hill. I saw a lot of guys go through it," he said.

And, he said, it's tougher because the Saints' next three games are on artificial turf.