NFL 2022: The biggest weakness of each NFC South team
By Lucas Schuh
New Orleans Saints’ biggest weakness for 2022 NFL season: Offensive Line
For the past couple of seasons, I think it’s fair to say that the Saints have had a fairly good offensive line. For starters, the Saints have had one of the better offensive tackle duos in the NFL in the form of Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead.
Ramczyk was drafted in the 2017 draft by the Saints, and once he landed in New Orleans he became a dominant force along the offensive line and is now one of the better right tackles in the league.
Armstead was drafted in 2013 out of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and like Ramczyk he was dominant in his rookie season and became one of the best left tackles in the league. The combination of these two was one to be feared, but unfortunately, they are no longer together.
Terron Armstead hit the free-agent market this past offseason, and he got paid like he was one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL.
Armstead signed with the Miami Dolphins in free agency as he signed a 5-year contract that is worth up to $87.5 million, with $43.5 million guaranteed.
With Armstead out of the picture, that puts a bit more stress on the rest of the Saints’ offensive line. We have looked at Ramczyk, but now let’s look at the rest of the offensive line in New Orleans.
Looking at the guard position, it will likely be Andrus Peat and Cesar Ruiz manning those spots.
Peat was a high draft pick by the Saints as they took him with the 13th pick overall in the 2015 draft. Peat showed some promise in his first couple of seasons but has really slowed down in his previous couple of seasons due to some significant injury.
Peat suffered a minor leg injury in his rookie season, during the 2017 season he suffered a broken fibula and a high ankle in a wildcard game against the Panthers, and most recently in 2021, he tore his pec in week seven against the Seahawks.
Either Peat has slowed down in his development, or his injuries have got the best of him as his quality of play has gradually dipped.
Peat will likely be playing left guard for the Saints, but playing right guard will be Cesar Ruiz. Like Peat, Ruiz was a 1st round draft pick as the Saints took him with the 24th pick overall in the 2020 Draft.
Ruiz was a highly touted prospect coming out of college, and many people were excited to see what he could do with the Saints. Unfortunately for the Saints and their fans, Ruiz hasn’t quite lived up to the hype he earned in college. Ruiz is still young, but so far not so good for Ruiz.
Another high-end draft pick by the Saints was Erik McCoy out of Oklahoma as the Saints took him with the 48th pick overall out of Texas A&M.
McCoy probably had the best rookie season out of his interior offensive line contemporaries, but also like them, he has somewhat struggled since his rookie season.
It also hasn’t helped things that McCoy had to miss a couple of games this past season due to a calf injury.
With Armstead now in south beach, the Saints needed to replace him, and they did that in this year’s draft with the selection of Trevor Penning. Penning was another high-end offensive line draft pick for the Saints as he was taken with the 19th pick in this year’s draft.
While Penning certainly has some attributes that coaches will like with his aggression and toughness, that could end up being a major problem for him at the NFL level.
It’s fair to say that Penning was too aggressive at the college level as he drew plenty of unsportsmanlike penalties.
I don’t want to rip on Penning too much, as there are some things to like as he is a good athlete and has some massive length to him.
While Penning would be a fine developmental prospect, he still has a ways to go in his development as he often times has poor bend and poor balance, which is only compounded by his extreme aggressiveness.
The Saints are full of young offensive linemen who could possibly end up taking a step forward, but the problem is the Saints will absolutely need them to take a step forward because if they don’t, they could be dealing with a major problem.