The New Orleans Saints offensive line was a heavy talking point after Wednesday’s practice session — for all the wrong reasons.
The most difficult part of training camp is deciding if one-sided battles are about the winning side doing well or the losing side doing poorly. After a few days of Chase Young dominating conversation, chatter was bound to flip to “What’s going on with the other side?”
You’ve heard good things about individuals across the New Orleans Saints offensive line, specifically rookie first-round p ick Taliese Fuaga. The unit hasn’t been praised since the pads came on early this week, however. Is that a credit to the defensive line or a criticism of the offensive line? You’ll never truly know until you face another team.
Regardless, seeing the offensive line struggle should concern you until see otherwise. They came into camp looking for three new starters and the takeaways sound like an offensive line looking for three new starters.
Erik McCoy sitting out team drills in the back half of Wednesday’s practice only made matters worse. They don’t have the luxury of staying steady in the trenches without their best blocker yet even if he needs a veteran rest day here or there. The Saints haven’t even been in pads for a work week at this point. Not only are these players new to the starting lineup, they’re young to the league and were expected to need development.
It would be disingenuous to be unfazed about this. There were questions about the offensive line heading into camp and there’s been no reason to erase those questions. Because of those concerns , it’s hard to say the unit is struggling because of the defense. It feels more likely the struggles start from within.
