Right there is the key conundrum. IF we can upgrade. Half the teams in the league are hoping and praying to find a tackle, or two. There are reasons why every player out there still available are indeed still available. And there are reasons why nobody would be in the market to trade away perhaps the rarest commodity in the NFL today, the competent tackle. I would, of course, love to find an upgrade at every o-line position as would, I imagine, the Saints front office and coaching staff. This is much, much easier said than done it appears. I doubt they are "sitting on their hands" when the probable fact is that their hands are tied for one reason or another.

Money talks. They've refused to spend and now the need is a glaring bulbous, throbbing sore that can no longer be ignored.

There WILL be players available and they WILL be expensive, but I'd rather overpay to shore up the position.

In my opinion if the coaching staff feels that they need to bring in a veteran to take Pennings spot then you cut him. It’s year 3 and he’s still not making the grade. Move on now and let another young guy handle the backup roll, if you do indeed find a suitable starter.

Pennings salary this year is fully guaranteed so in theory you would not cut him unless he was so bad he couldnt even be your last backup. Maybe he is that bad. Or maybe you could trade him, but doubtful. The other side to it is maybe if he gets benched you cut him anyway if you feel the situation is toxic and just forget about the money. Also I believe Jamal Williams and Foster Moreau also have guaranteed salaries this year.

I hope they will be available. Fingers crossed that there will be some out there when the cuts occur that are truly upgrades.

What would ever lead you to believe that anything would be toxic? That would never have even occurred to me.

I'm hoping a team is willing to trade a 6th or 7th ahead of releasing to waivers.

So I will explain this. The Saints front office invested a 1st round pick in Trevor Penning, which came at great expense due to the trade with Philly. At this point if we put Penning up for trade, we can speculate, but I think its questionable whether the Saints could get a 6th or 7th rounder for Penning, or nothing. You can be optimistic and dream Pennings present value could be a 4th or 5th around pick but even then, it is like a 90% or more loss in present value. So team is family, sure, but Penning is like a family member who borrowed money to start a business that has now lost most of that money and left those who believed in him struggling. Such situations are frequently toxic. Maybe some believe Penning will 100% turn it around and be a star, but most recognize that is not where we are now, so there are going to be feelings of disappointment, guilt, blame, resentment, etc. Penning is likely disappointed too. Likely some in Pennings circles are whispering in his ear that he has not been developed properly, and some in the circles of the Saints front office are whispering that Penning is difficult to coach and wasn't who they thought he was. That people blame other people when things go wrong is human nature. And just because it is kept behind closed doors does not mean its not reasonable to speculate that human beings are doing human nature. It is like speculating that celebrities who have been dating for a 2.5 years have probably had sex. They may not have done it public. They may not have discussed it publicly, but its human nature. Likewise, the more Penning disappoints, the more it is human nature that the disappointment results in tensions where the Saints blame Penning and Penning blames the Saints. Small inklings of this can be seen in the narrative where Penning tried to spin a comeback story around seeking advice from former Saint Terron Armstead and not discussing coaches and shrugging off questions about advice from present teammates like Ram. Or the end of last season where the Saints refused to use Penning even as a fill in when injuries mounted. Meanwhile the front office fired all their offensive coaches who had anything to do with Penning last year, in hopes a new staff could fix Penning, but for the most part we have seen the same old inconsistent Penning, raving about offhand conversations with former Saints not the new staff. While everyone would prefer that Penning suddenly develop as a star, I expect that behind closed doors tensions are building, and if the Saints feel that Penning will never become a good starter, they might rather just move on than keep him around as a project backup surrounded by disappointments and resentment that could negatively impact the locker room. Sometimes a fresh start is best when expectations are not met.

All for that if there's anyone out there that could truly be an upgrade. I don't see a shot in hell of a true starter quality player being available at tackle at either waivers or late round trade fodder. Other positions, yes. I can see it. But if we can at least improve depth at tackle it would be a plus and worth a late pick, I suppose.

Like I have mentioned before, there's probably not a team out there that wouldn't want to improve their o-line depth. It seems like it's more of a seller's market than a buyer's market for the position. Perhaps if the trade was sweet enough a team might let a decent backup go for a mid round pick like a 4th, or maybe even a 3rd. I think that would probably be our best bet of picking up someone that could actually contribute at the position.