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