I never understood the Ruiz pick/logic by moving a high performing center. But then again Erik is athletic, extremely mobile and bigger so I think he'll become a solid guard.

At least I hope.

What does that matter? I don't get where "when" a player was picked has any relevance moving forward.

So put Peat at LT and Armstead at Center or LG...

Now you are being ridiculous. Anderson never said every position is completely interchangeable. But, there is enough latitude between certain positions that putting the five best athletes out there on the offensive lines is perfectly doable.

Ridiculous was that statement, quoting it; my response simply exposed that flawed logic. There are some players who transition well, not great, but well...

Sure Peat could play, even start on other teams, but at his current production, performance, that team would suck as well...

McCoy is a great center and the only reason I believe they looked at moving him to guard is that he can get out and run, lead at a very rare elite level...

While I like the kid, to expend two high picks into essentially the same position was foolhardy; and now we have serious question marks at two positions on the line...

I never understood the Ruiz pick/logic by moving a high performing center. But then again Erik is athletic, extremely mobile and bigger so I think he'll become a solid guard.

At least I hope.

What does that matter? I don't get where "when" a player was picked has any relevance moving forward.

So put Peat at LT and Armstead at Center or LG...

I'm sorry but I fail to see any serious question marks concerning the offensive line. I agree completely with the others that say we have arguably the best offensive line in the NFL. I'm not sure where your expectations lie.

I'm sorry but I fail to see any serious question marks concerning the offensive line. I agree completely with the others that say we have arguably the best offensive line in the NFL. I'm not sure where your expectations lie.

It's been a little testy on the boards recently. The season can't get here fast enough.

We can't be elite at every position, but we're elite at the Center and at the Tackles; Brees-Payton offense was based on the strength of the Guard play...

I'd say we're very weak, inconsistent at the guards; the inconsistency is why drives stall...

Might want to take these glasses off, your vision will improve vastly...

Weak? No. Inconsistent? An argument could be made that it is true. But a lot of shuffling was done and the results were elite, iyam.

6th rated rushing attack with 141.6 ypg average.
6th best pass protection unit allowing only a very meager 17.2% QB pressure.

Hiccups along the way? Sure, shuffling the line bc of injuries will do that. But those linemen, including “depth” players, over the long haul of a season, played at an extremely high level, once again iyam, elite level.

There is a reason as to why DB#9 is 1 or 2 in most passing records, but not even in the top 10 as far as sacks goes. Not even close, he’s 13th on that list, after 19 seasons, 15 with New Orleans. The OL has protected Mr. Brees like no other team, for a very significant period of time. That’s not an accident. That’s elite development and targeting, through the draft or FA, of linemen. Guards, Centers, and tackles, they’re fungible at the pos’n level in this scheme, and even at any quantitative analysis regardless of team or scheme. Not the eye test though, despite stats, we can see a bad player on an otherwise elite offensive line. I just haven’t found a “weak link” though, even with the eye test and completely ignoring metrics analyses. If the entire OL statistical play was bad, over the years, I would agree with you, but it hasn’t been, so I just can’t make that argument.

A fair debate could be had on whether the Saints needed to draft a LB, maybe your LSU LBer (PQueen) instead of another offensive lineman, but the value in Ruiz is clearly there. Also, keep in mind that the overriding mindset from year to year was ‘protect Mr. Brees, at all cost’.

I’ll take our two guards, even knowing Senor Sammich might get injured.

Bottom line, sometimes drives stall simply because the opposing team has superstar players trying to stop our momentum. You can’t win every play, every drive will not always end up in points. It’s an elite line, with one aging tackle, and one semi-brittle guard. But when they’re in, the entire line is one of, if not THE best in the entire league.

You very well could be right wrt the guards, but that would require an expert analysis from each snap that those guards were playing in and assigning a score to it. And, that would require trust in that expert being unbiased. I’m not prepared to do that deep dive my friend, lol. Heck, I’ve already spent ten minutes on this post, which I could have used more efficiently elsewhere. lol