This is worth watching. Right guard Cesar Ruiz missed Wednesday’s New Orleans Saints practice with what head coach Dennis Allen said was a knee injury. And as Nola.com’s Rod Walker noted, if Ruiz can’t play on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, the Saints will be without all five of their starters from last year’s offensive line.
Center Erik McCoy is going on injured reserve with a groin injury. Last season’s left tackle, Andrus Peat, is currently playing for the Las Vegas Raiders. The left guard will either be Oli Udoh, Landon Young, or Nick Saldiveri, none of whom played many snaps there on last year’s team. Ruiz’s replacement at right guard would be anyone’s guess. And right tackle Trevor Penning was benched last season after initially playing left tackle.
Some turnover was needed given how poorly the Saints’ offensive line performed a year ago, but this is excessive. Being down one starter is bad enough; that it’s McCoy, the unit’s best player, getting sidelined for six to eight weeks is even worse. Working without Ruiz as well would only exacerbate their problems.
We’ll watch out for updates carefully throughout the week. Ruiz was able to play through his knee issue last Sunday but that may not be the case for him in their next game. Hopefully he’s able to go and do a better job slowing down the Falcons than we saw last week against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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