Kellen Moore has stressed the importance of winning the trenches plenty in his short time as a new head coach.
That’s an area where the New Orleans Saints have to get better on both sides of the ball. Once upon a time, the offensive line used to be a major strength of the team. Over the years, for one reason or another, it’s slowly lost that dominance and the analytics and rankings reflect it.
There’s upside there for the offensive line, but consistency and availability have hindered any of the full potential to come out. We wrap up our look at the offense ahead of free agency, specifically focusing on the interior and what the Saints need to get over the next few months.
Saints Interior Offensive Line Overview
Players Under Contract: Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz, Nick Saldiveri, Kyle Hergel
Free Agent Outlook: Lucas Patrick, Landon Young, Shane Lemieux
Priority Level: High
You could almost say that it’s critical for the Saints to figure out what they’re going to do at left guard. There seemed to be a decent plan in place last year, but unfortunately injuries forced a lot of those best-laid plans out of the door. At left guard, Nick Saldiveri looked to be their guy for a while, but then it shifted to Lucas Patrick due to injury.
Things started going very wrong for New Orleans last year when Erik McCoy got injured on the third play of the Week 3 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. That caused quite the carousel for the Saints offensive line, as they had a lot of makeshift lineups. Did you know the Saints offense had the most unique lineups of any NFL team at 541? They were among the lowest in the league with the percentage of plays featuring their most common lineup at 2.03%. Only the Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins were lower.
Yes, injuries were a factor and will always be a factor, but New Orleans seemingly had it all in 2024. Trevor Penning and Taliese Fuaga were the only two players who cracked over 90% of the team’s offensive snaps, with Penning leading the way with 1,082 (99.5%) snaps and Taliese Fuaga right behind him with 1,071 (98.4%). Here’s how it looked for the other big men up front.
Saints Offensive Line Snap Counts – 2024
Cesar Ruiz – 814 (74.8%)
Lucas Patrick – 563 (51.8%)
Landon Young – 393 (36.1%)
Connor McGovern – 369 (33.9%)
Nick Saldiveri – 344 (31.6%)
Shane Lemieux – 338 (31.1%)
Erik McCoy – 293 (26.9%)
Oli Udoh – 149 (13.7%)
Kyle Hergel –
45 (4.1%)
The days of an entire offensive line going the distance are extremely rare. The Detroit Lions are one of the league’s best examples, with four of their starters appearing in 91% of their offensive snaps or more. It can be done, and hopefully a new direction with Tom Rath in the sports science department coupled with the team figuring out why they got injured so much last year could benefit the line. There has to be better play from players like Cesar Ruiz, and he’ll be the first to admit that. Regardless, their immediate need is a left guard, and there’s ways they can address it.Free Agent Route
This would be the most likely play here. Mekhi Becton is probably the most popular name that would be paired to the Saints, assuming he does become available. It would obviously make sense with Kellen Moore at the helm. However, that price tag would be what to pay attention to. On the open market, he could likely pull in $10 million annually with ease.
With Brendan Nugent back in the mix and Kellen Moore’s previous ties, that’s where I’d look if I were New Orleans. That’s what happened last year with Klint Kubiak and his offensive staff. Nugent’s presence wouldn’t likely bring in a player like Bradley Bozeman, but maybe someone like Sam Mustipher could come to New Orleans for depth with an upside to compete. A player not related to the staff I’d like to see the Saints look at would be Robert Jones (Dolphins).
The same dilemma that teams have with the offensive tackle group is prevalent with the interior linemen, and that’s a fairly big market of 30-or-over players. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it could honestly allow the Saints to get a plug and play option for a year that’s relatively cap friendly. If you want some of the younger options like a Becton, expect to get into that $10 million/year conversation easily.
The Saints aren’t using a first-round pick on a guard, and no, Trevor Penning isn’t being moved inside for those who were wondering or considering it. However, as you get later into Day 2 or early Day 3, then that could be an appropriate spot to address the position. That’s obviously not a guarantee that whoever they draft will be the starter, but it is an option.
If you’re looking into Round 3 or lower, then you might end up with a Wyatt Milum (West Virginia), Emery Jones Jr. (LSU), Anthony Belton (NC State), Tate Ratledge (Georgia) or a Jared Wilson (Georgia). There’s obviously more prospects in this cloud, but it’s an idea of what New Orleans could come away with and still be pretty happy about it.
