Games early in the season always tend to result in some sort of overreaction, however, I don’t think it would be reactionary at all to say the New Orleans Saints offensive line would be in huge trouble if Erik McCoy had to miss some time.
Facing a player like Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter exacerbated the issue, but it went deeper than that. There was a point where Cesar Ruiz and Oli Udoh ran into each other in the backfield. Think Jordan Howden and Marshon Lattimore colliding on Dallas Goedert’s field-flipping catch, but as offensive linemen.
McCoy is the leader of the unit and you can’t help but think those plays don’t happen with him there. It’s a trickle down effect with his absence. Lucas Patrick moves to center, and now you’ve downgraded at center and left guard. Ruiz looked bad too, but that could reasonably change. Udoh performed too poorly to receive the benefit of the doubt.
So McCoy missing pretty much the entirety of the game showed he may be one of the five most important players on this team. He’s their best offensive linemen and the glue holding the rest of the unit together.
The interior of the offensive line is dramatically worse without him. It may not disrupt the offense as much as it did in Week 3, but it will have a huge impact on the effectiveness of the offense.
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