Tag: Trevor Penning

Saints free agent OL Andrus Peat visiting Titans on Monday

New Orleans Saints free agent Andrus Peat is visiting the Tennessee Titans on Monday. The veteran offensive lineman could be in high demand:

New Orleans Saints free agent Andrus Peat is visiting the Tennessee Titans on Monday, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The veteran offensive lineman could be in high demand after playing well at left tackle in 2023, having spent most of his NFL career at left guard.

If Peat is signed away by another team, the Saints will not receive a compensatory pick in the 2025 NFL draft. That’s because he agreed to a reworked contract last summer which cost him a pay cut, with the Saints agreeing to tear up the last year of his deal, allowing him to reach free agency ahead of schedule.

That’s a tough break seeing as the Saints are forfeiting $13,638,000 in dead money after past restructures with Peat. That’s how much salary cap space they’ll be without if he’s playing elsewhere, without the promise of a comp pick coming back in next year’s draft.

But it might be necessary. Peat has struggled with injuries throughout his career, being limited to 111 of 147 possible games in the regular season. The Saints overpaid him relative to performance and have had to work around his contract for a while, so this dead money cap hit isn’t anything new. If this is it for Peat in New Orleans, he’ll be off the books altogether in 2025. And if he’s leaving the Saints need to invest in a quality insurance policy should Trevor Penning continue to struggle at left tackle.

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Little potential for compensatory draft picks in the Saints’ 2025 forecast

Experts see little potential for compensatory draft picks in the Saints’ 2025 forecast. Mickey Loomis must make the most of his choices in 2024:

It’s been good to see the New Orleans Saints changing their valuation of compensatory draft picks in recent years. Acquiring extra draft picks in exchange for losing free agents to other teams has worked out for them. Just look at their past history:

  • 2021: Comp picks in rounds three (Nos. 98 and 105) and six (218)
  • 2022: Comp picks in rounds three (Nos. 98 and 101)
  • 2023: Comp pick in round seven (No. 257)

And while the Saints expect to continue that trend in 2024 (they’re projected to receive three extra picks in the fifth round, per Over The Cap) the forecast for 2025 isn’t looking very favorable. Remember, teams are awarded comp picks in the following year’s draft based off the current year’s free agency results. And New Orleans simply lacks many players who are seen as desirable qualifiers.

OTC’s Nick Korte explains:

The Saints remain devoted to keeping core players on their roster, no matter how much they amortize the cap dollars associated with their contracts to do so. This regularly leaves them with few CFA worthy players hitting free agency. But on the other hand, filling up on incumbent players also tends to make them avoid free agency. In the past couple of seasons this has generated some comp picks for them, but typically they do not care much about them, and this could be one of those seasons where they revert to their mean.

Many of the Saints’ top players expected to become available will not qualify for the comp picks formula: guys like Jameis Winston, Michael Thomas, and Andrus Peat. It’s possible that backups on defense earn better opportunities and higher salaries elsewhere, but any signings the Saints make could balance out the losses (and possible comp picks) for defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, linebacker Zack Baun, or cornerback Isaac Yiadom.

So that means the Saints must make the most of their comp picks while they have them. And fans should expect them to be traded. The Saints have traded every comp pick they’ve received in the last three years:

  • Both third-round comp picks in 2021 were packaged in a trade to move up and pick cornerback Paulson Adebo
  • The seventh-round comp pick in 2021 was traded in a move up for offensive tackle Landon Young
  • Both third-round comp picks in 2022 were traded; No. 98 was used to move up for wide receiver Chris Olave, while No. 101 was traded in the package of picks used to get another first rounder, which became left tackle Trevor Penning
  • And the seventh-round comp pick in 2023 was packaged with tight end Adam Trautman in a trade up, targeting wide receiver A.T. Perry

So this tells us that Saints general manager Mickey Loomis tends to view comp picks as trade ammunition more than anything else. He’s known as an aggressive wheeler-and-dealer on draft day, and recent history lays out his go-to strategy very clearly. We’ll see if the trend continues in 2024, but the Saints may not have the promise of extra picks to lean on in 2025, depending on how free agency plays out this March.

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Saints schedule one of their first draft visits with Trevor Penning’s old teammate

The Saints scheduled one of their first pre-draft visits with Trevor Penning’s old teammate: Northern Iowa defensive tackle Khristian Boyd.

The New Orleans Saints have one of their first top-30 prospect visits lined up, as they will meet with Northern Iowa defensive tackle Khristian Boyd, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Boyd, a former college teammate of Saints offensive lineman Trevor Penning, didn’t get invited to the NFL combine last week but did have a nice showing at the East-West Shrine Bowl (where he weighed in at 6-foot-2 and 320 pounds) to start his pre-draft process. His scouting report carries many of the same talking-points as Penning did after during the process, such as bringing a lot of energy and aggression off the snap.

The interior lineman looks like someone that could be a powerful run defender in the NFL, but he’s disruptive with 10.5 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss, plus 89 quarterback pressures in his college career per Pro Football Focus charting. If the Saints like what they get out of him in this interview and private workout, expect him to be either a late-round pick or priority undrafted free agent target.

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4 questions that will shape the Saints’ offseason

Free agency is a little over a week away. The Saints must answer these four questions to determine their offseason approach:

Free agency begins in a little over a week, followed by the draft a month later. As the days count down to the start of the new league year, the New Orleans Saints’ coaches are meeting with scouts and front office personnel to decide which areas they prefer to address in free agency versus the draft. Roster management is an ongoing endeavor.

Some questions will keep coming up. There are clear voids to fill on the team, but the Saints will also need to choose whether to keep some players or let them walk away. These four decisions will shape New Orleans’ overall approach to the offseason:

Saints must address these 4 positions this offseason

In order to be better than 9-8 and make the playoffs, the Saints must improve at these 4 positions:

The New Orleans Saints ended last season with a 9-8 record with an easy schedule. Obviously, the team has a lot of room to improve. The first step was adding Klint Kubiak as offensive coordinator. His addition should help New Orleans win with scheme as well as talent instead of relying strictly on the players.

There need to be improvements to the roster as well. There is a lot of uncertainty along the offensive line at a couple of positions. That is the paramount concern as it has the ability to cripple the offense. What are the other biggest positions of need?

Saints free agent preview: OL Andrus Peat, stay or go?

Next up in our New Orleans Saints free agent previews: Andrus Peat. Should the veteran offensive lineman stay or go?

We’ve already touched on two of the high-profile New Orleans Saints players likely headed for free agency in Michael Thomas and Jameis Winston, so we’ll keep it going and discuss Andrus Peat’s future with the team.

The Saints only kept Peat on the roster last offseason after convincing him to take a pay cut, and he was kicked down to the bottom of the depth chart in training camp. For a while he looked like a candidate to be released during roster cuts. But Trevor Penning’s poor performance to start the season pushed him back into the lineup at left tackle, and Peat finished the year as New Orleans’ best option to protect Derek Carr’s blind side.

But that’s simplifying things. Let’s take a deeper look:

4 burning questions Saints must answer after hiring Klint Kubiak

Klint Kubiak is going to be the Saints’ new offensive coordinator. What are the 4 burning questions they must answer in 2024?

The New Orleans Saints are able to officially hire Klint Kubiak now that the Super Bowl is over. When the news was originally reported, it was received well by the Who Dat Nation. A large amount of the excitement comes from Kubiak’s previous involvement with the San Francisco 49ers and more importantly the Shanahan offensive system.

Excitement alone, however, won’t be enough for New Orleans next season. Now that Kubiak is in New Orleans, what are the biggest questions that need to be answered? Some questions can be answered immediately while others may not be answered until the season.

Longtime Gary Kubiak assistant emerges in Saints OL coach search

A longtime Gary Kubiak assistant has emerged as the frontrunner in the Saints’ search for a new offensive line coach. John Benton could be the right man for the job:

Klint Kubiak’s New Orleans Saints coaching staff is beginning to take shape. Kubiak can’t be formerly introduced as the team’s offensive coordinator until after his San Francisco 49ers compete in Super Bowl LVIII this Sunday, but the Saints are already on the search for key position coaches who know his system.

One name to watch: John Benton, who the Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Luke Johnson reports is a frontrunner to coach the offensive line under Kubiak, replacing the recently-dismissed Doug Marrone. Benton, 60, has a wealth of NFL experience — he came up as Gary Kubiak’s offensive line coach with the Houston Texans from 2006 to 2013, playing a big role in establishing one of the league’s best rushing offenses. Arian Foster, an undrafted rookie, twice led the league in touchdown runs and earned four Pro Bowl nods running behind Benton’s offensive line.

He also played for the Saints as a replacement during the 1987 strike. A graduate out of Colorado State (Klint Kubiak’s alma mater), he’s spent time with the St. Louis Rams early in his career (way back in 2003) and more recently on staff with the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars. Notably, he was one of the first assistants that Kyle Shanahan hired with the San Francisco 49ers (having worked together in Houston) back in 2017. He helped install one of the league’s best rushing attacks before leaving for a promotion on Robert Saleh’s New York Jets staff in 2021, being named the run game coordinator. But he was let go after the 2022 season and wasn’t in the NFL in 2023.

He could be a good get. Balancing out a younger offensive coordinator (Kubiak turns 37 in February) with a position coach who has seen it all through a decades-long career and developed so many young players might be the best path forward. Coaching up embattled left tackle Trevor Penning is just one of the responsibilities that come with the job, but it’s a critical task, and Benton just might be the right guy to see it through. The Saints use many of the same zone-blocking concepts that Benton, Shanahan, and the Kubiaks pioneered, just not as effectively. Maybe he can clean up the mistakes and get them on track.

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Quick Saints takeaways from Jeff Ireland’s Senior Bowl interview

Quick Saints takeaways on Trevor Penning, the 2023 draft class, Tulane QB Michael Pratt, and more Broncos departures from Jeff Ireland’s Senior Bowl interview:

There are few events more important to the New Orleans Saints’ pre-draft process than the annual Senior Bowl, where coaches and scouts get an opportunity to meet with dozens of draft prospects and see them go through their paces at three days of practices.

Local media caught up with Saints assistant general manager and vice president of college personnel Jeff Ireland this week, who shared his take on a number of topics including players already on the roster and those he’s looking to add. You can find his full media availability session here, but we highlighted some key takeaways:

6 moves the Saints should make to get back into the playoffs in 2024

The New Orleans Saints should do these six things if they want to get back into the NFL playoffs for 2024

If the New Orleans Saints want to break a three-year playoff draught, some changes are going to have to be made. The Saints are getting older and need to get younger while also simultaneously improving at a few position groups. The biggest area of weakness for the team on both sides of the ball is the trenches.

The Saints’ biggest issues on offense can be traced back to the struggles along the offensive line. The offense fell apart when protection weakened around Derek Carr. Defensively, the Saints struggled to rush the passer or stop the run. Here’s what they need to do to correct those problems and get back to the playoffs in 2024: