2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Well, it's nearly been a quarter of a season, tonight, Saints offensive line really needs a good performance to savage an "F' for the first four weeks in my mind...

Breaking it down...

Left Tackle Terron Armstead hasn't been the 'beast' we were expecting, but he's been good, just not great; this a a familiar theme and I believe long-term Armstead would be better served as a right tackle...

Left Guard Tim Lelito is playing like a first year linemen would play; if we wanted superior play, we should have signed Bengals FA Clint Boling instead of a cornerback who was benched for the playoffs by the team we're trying to emulate...

Center Max Unger hasn't had any of the plays like he had on the Cooks touchdown bubble screen against the Ravens, but his impact is negigible because of poor guard play...

Right Guard Jahri Evans has been awful when he's played; maybe he's being a soldier playing through injury, maybe he's play has completely fallen off - either way Saints FO failed miserably letting it get to this...

Right Tackle Zach Strief who plays with a big heart looks like he's falling off faster than a corvette off a California Coast Highway Cliff; the big guy is really struggling and is primed for replacement...

And that brings us to rookie and first round pick Andrus Peat and Offensive Line Coach Bret Ingals...

It was bad enough Peat came in out-of-shape as a first round pick; but after four (4) months, he's still not in shape?

How long does the Saints coaching staff need to develop Peat? We can't redshirt first and second round picks not in the NFL (Not For Long)...

Peat has to see the field now, if we're to turn this thing around; and it can turn around for us if we can get that right side fixed...

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

And this is what you want out of your offensive line...

Arizona State OL amazingly drags RB 15-plus extra yards for game-icing TD - CBSSports.com

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Terron Armstead is grading out as one of the tackles in the league so far. Completely disagree that he's just been good.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

This. Coaching Staff Accountability. Payton is too fixated on his play-calling & his offense that he loses oversight of his coaching staff. His coaches fail to develop LINEBACKERS, corners, etc. and has for some time now.

Peat was supposed to be a sure-fire starter, Day 1 with undeniable talent. So he plays 20 snaps a game.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Agree, He is currently rated the #1 LT in the entire NFL.

He is a perfect LT. He looks nothing like an NFL RT.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

JP, you've always had this obsession with moving Armstead to right tackle even though he's quietly become one of the best LT's in the league. What's up with that?

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Where have you read he's still out of shape? I've heard nothing at all about his conditioning since he played every snap in the B&G scimmage and got winded during the gassers afterwards.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Armstead is the best player at his position in the NFL. Didn't read much passed that.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

I haven't said that he's still out-of-shape; I've just questioned why we still can't get Peat on the field when several positions are struggling, especially right tackle...

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

My humble opinion...

Armstead - Freaking Beast. On an All-Pro pace.

Lelito - Coming along nicely, about NFL average so far.

Unger - Solid, but not a beast yet. Still gelling with the rest

Evans - Dying faster than a vampire in the desert sunlight

Strief - Below average, but could pick it up.

Peat - Everyone knew he wouldn't break the starting line-up until late in the season or next year. Progressing as expected.

Kelemete - He's about average, but has played better than Evans has this year

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

It's because of his athleticism...

Compared to other Tackles (both) in the league, I agree, he's already the best...

But with that athleticism, superior advantage, believe Armstead could really open up those right side with a more noticeable talent advantage on screens, run plays for more yardages, scores!!!

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

And I'm not harrassing anyone, but when we speak of grading, are we assuming PFF grades?

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

I got to agree here. Kelemete is filling a huge void with Evans looking like crap. Lelito (slowly) coming along. But what I can't wrap my head around still was the Peat pick, Armstead is a stud LT and Peat was the #1 LT in the draft, why did we use the pick on a LT instead of a G/RT that could step in . G was on my priority list for the draft and thought Strief had at least this year in him I will admit. I'm not a coach but I do have a set of decent eyes to see where we could upgrade but for some reason these high profile, well paid people that put this team can't see an inch in front of them at times.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

I still think the Peat pick and possibly the Grayson one should have been spent on WR's instead.

There were plenty of good WR's available and we passed on every single one

Cooks is good but he's not the number one Payton thinks he is
Colston is done
Brandon Coleman is just turrrible, he looks to have no football instincts at all
Snead is developing nicely
Josh Hill is complete and utter trash, Payton spoke of him as a HOF'er
Ben Watson is a liability, drops and Fumbles too much.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Peat was the right pick and this is why...

Peat should be an upgrade at right tackle over Strief (30+ years) as Peat can learns the NFL game...

Second, the Saints don't know what kind of numbers, dollars it's going to take to retain Armstead...

Third, if they have to franchise tag Armstead, that gives them a year to transition Peat and see their options...

We're rolling alot of dead cap money into the future, and that is huge in the personnel decision making...

Peat was looked upon as a "safe" pick; but he came in late (school) and out-of-shape (Peat's failure)...

Strief's play has been underwhelming and Peat should have had the opportunity to step in at this point and that's not happened...

So I share the disappointment, but he was the right pick...

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Not to mention Armstead was playing on a bad ankle.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Armstead should be the LT for the Saints for the forseable future. With an athletic ability like that there is wher you want him (as long as your QB is right handed).

Strief is doing what he can with a limited athletic ability but is depending on the interior line doing its job since he rarely stones a DE at the LOS but instead runs them upfield and around the QB.

Which brings me to Unger who has been all right but no all pro so far.

Kelemente was absolutely horrible in this game. A lot of pressure was because of him doing a bad job in the middle. Much rather have Evans in there but that might take a while since he had his knee scoped this week.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Listened to Steve Korte on WWL driving home yesterday and his opinion after looiking at the game films is that the Offensive Line's fundamentals are bad.

New practice rules by Players Association don't give enough time for "live" practicing.

This makes me think that the coaching is not what it should be, from Payton down to offensive line coach. Players not responsible for honing their skills during off-season.

If they don't get better Brees may not live through this season.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

last nights game sold me that strief is getting beat at the snap several times he still had great position on de but failed to drive him past brees, and gave up the tackle or disrupted the play. if he would just keep driving him brees steps up and makes play, but instead he hits bresses arm again and should have been picks.25% brees fault 75% strief fault imo. we got the win lets move on with a lot of improvement still to get better. I know we hadnot peeked out, nowhere near that.

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The problem with that is mainly that there is no room for Brees to step up into due to leakage on the interior.

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and one more thing what the hecks going on with ingram , hes not hitting the hole like he did last year before the broken hand game, hes looking sluggish again imo. the dam ball handling , needs to secure ball tru-out play. payton seemed frustrated with his play, is it the pick-up from buffalo?

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

But he is catching the ball better than ever and does good things once he catches it. He leads the team in yards from LOS but I can still agree with the hitting the holes. I still think it goes back to 'Bama. He ran behind such a great line then and had highway sized holes to run through and all the time in the world to make up his mind. In the NFL not so much.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

From what I saw first half, Strief was beaten badly. Initially he looked awful but got better by the 4th.

Side note: I think Peat's footwork has improved. Filled in nicely when Armstead went down. I'm ready to see more of Andrus moving forward.

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I like Steve Korte and he's probably right. We have 3 new players along the O-line and of all the units in the NFL, the O-line is the one that requires 5 players in complete unison both mentally and physically.

With the new rules its gotta be hard for new O-lines to gell. I suspect as the season wears on the O-line will get better and better.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Saints have got to get Peat in at right or left tackle...

We've got to find out what we've got now, especially with decisions to be made regarding Armstead's contract extension coming due...

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Strief needs to go, I've been thinking this for years now. For years now Streif has gotten beat and allowed Brees to take big hits. Throw Peat out there and see what he does, I have more tolerance for a rookie than a veteran making mistakes

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Yeah this is happening all over the NFL right now. Eventually you gonna have to practise to become good no matter what the NFLPA thinks about it.

It will be interesting to see when the fingerpointing starts about the last collective bargaing agreement and the recent QB injuries. I mean Brees, The Rape-ape (Roethlisberger), Romo, Luck, Josh McCown and so on. Not all injuries might be because of O-lines not practising together but we'll see if this is a trend during the season.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Man nice to get a win but we really need help at a lot of positions. We have O-line issues, receiver issues, defensive back issues, and D- line that can't rush. Looks like it's going to be a long year and back to the old we will be better next year again. It is what it is.

Re: 2015 Saints Offensive Line - First Quarter Season Assessment
 

Stealing Danos set up here My humble opinion...

Armstead - He is way ahead of the curve for a small school prospect.

Lelito - Jury is out and Hung. The kid still can not handle a stunt

Unger - Trying to minimizing the damage his two bookends are causing

Kelemete - Jury is out and Hung. The kid still can not handle a stunt

Strief - Age is catching up with swing OT. Saints waited a least two years to long to draft and groom a replacement.

Peat - well we bit the bullet and we have to live with it. IMO we could have traded down a bit and still got him. no way was he getting past that group atop the 20s with Carolina leading the way.

Lets face it the OL has always had a position or two the saints roll the dice on. They just waited a bit to long to address age. waiting to the last minute is never wise.