New Orleans Saints LT Trevor Penning shows power, needs a plan in NFL debut

Saints first-round tackle Trevor Penning was strong in the run game, but needed a plan when pass-blocking, in his first NFL game.

When you select an offensive tackle in the first round of a draft, you are generally expecting that guy to start right away… or pretty close to it. The New Orleans Saints took Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning with the 19th overall pick in the 2022 draft. making him the fourth offensive tackle taken after Ikem Ekwonu (sixth to the Panthers). Evan Neal (seventh to the Giants), and Charles Cross (ninth to the Seahawks). All three of those players have much more starting experience against better competition, which gives Penning the look of a developmental prospect.

Penning was able to show his aggressive mindset at the 2022 Reese’s Senior Bowl, getting into various donnybrooks with all kinds of opponents with his bar-fighting style of play. As much as that impressed the general populace, there were also reps during the week of practice in Mobile, Alabama that had Penning out of sorts from a technical perspective.

Cleveland Browns uber-rusher Myles Garrett had something to say about that back in March.

Around that same time, I did a series of tweets in which I investigated Penning’s play in actual games, and there was a lot to wonder about from a technical perspective.

Here’s one play with straight whiffs on two different defenders on a pull…

…here’s Penning passing the end to miss against the second-level defender…

…here’s Penning missing at the second level again, and adding some after-play activity to emphasize whatever point he’s trying to make…

…and here, he does show the one thing he could consistently do in pass pro. Maul people to the ground.

Penning’s all-in wrestling personality extended itself to the Saints’ 2022 training camp.

New head coach Dennis Allen wasn’t exactly impressed.

“We’ve got to get our work done,” Allen said. “We’ve got to learn as a team how to compete, and how to play, and how to practice, and push ourselves to the limit, yet not take it over the edge.

“We are in the third day in a row in practice,” Allen concluded. “People begin to get a little bit tired and things get a little bit chippy. It’s not unusual for something like that to occur during a training camp. It’s certainly something we don’t want to see happen. It’ll be addressed and we’ll move forward.”

But when the Saints and Texans squared off last Friday, all that stuff was out the window. It was Penning’s time to succeed or fail at the highest level of football on his own merits. In Houston’s 17-13 win over the Saints last Saturday, Penning played 57 snaps — 28 in passing situations, and 29 in rushing situations. So, it was a good overall heat check on where Penning is as a player. He allowed a sack, a quarterback hit, and three quarterback hurries, and while his run-blocking was generally sound (that’s never really been a problem, the pass-blocking issues aligned on tape with what Pro Football Focus’ charting told you.

“I mean, it was good to get out there and play an actual NFL game,” Penning said after. “I felt like there were… there’s moments I definitely need to clean up for sure. That comes with time and reps in it. So, I’ll go back in on Monday, watch the film, and learn from it.”

“They played pretty base,” Penning said of the Texans. “There were a couple of stunts that were a little different than what I was expecting, but for the most part, it was kind of base.”

The Saints face the Packers in Green Bay on Friday, August 19, and there will be some joint practices beforehand. Penning said that he’s looking forward to going up against some different defenders with different techniques in practice and in the game.

It will be a learning experience for Penning, and it won’t all come together immediately, but let’s take a closer look at where Penning is as a blind-side blocker based on his first NFL action.