Saints facing major questions at offensive tackle, but GM Mickey
Trevor Penning and Ryan Ramczyk, two past first-round selections, were the starting offensive tackles for the New Orleans Saints when the 2023 season got off.
As the 2024 offseason draws near, there are a lot of unsolved questions for each of those athletes.
The Saints benched Penning after five poor starts, and by the end of the season, Penning was barely able to play despite the offensive line of the Saints
suffering numerous injuries.
One of those injuries was to Ramczyk, who spent the season on injured reserve due to a knee problem that had bothered him for years and raised
concerns about whether he would have to retire early.
Speaking on both Wednesday, Loomis took a cautiously optimistic approach.
As for Ramczyk, who still has three-years remaining on the $96 million extension he signed in 2021, Loomis said, “any time you have a good player
who is going through a tough thing health-wise, you’re always concerned And yet, I have a positive feeling about where he’s going to end up and I think he does as well.”
When it comes to Penning, Loomis admitted the organization “didn’t do him any favors.”
The 2022 No. 19 overall pick was sidelined for the majority of his rookie season due to a serious toe injury. In Week 18, he sustained a Lisfranc injury
that kept him out of the field for nearly the whole summer. In retrospect, Loomis said the Saints most likely attempted to rush him into the rotation given the amount of time he missed.
When it came to where he was and what he was prepared to accomplish, Loomis stated, “I think a lot of that falls on us.” “We all still have a lot of
expectations for Trevor Penning, but we also know that we need to do a better job of helping him grow and being ready.
We’ll probably do that during the off-season. We’ll have a solid strategy for him, I believe.
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