New Orleans Saints seeking right combination on offensive line

'We don't run a charity organization where we give things away'

Aug 14, 2024 at 05:21 PM

John DeShazier

Senior Writer

Check out the game action shots from the New Orleans Saints game against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL Preseason.

Irvine, Calif. – Establishing continuity has been a key element on the offensive line as the New Orleans Saints have surged through training camp at Cal-Irvine. The combination of left tackle Taliese Fuaga, left guard Lucas Patrick, center Erik McCoy, right guard Cesar Ruiz and right tackle Trevor Penning have taken almost all of the starting reps.

And yet, as Penning has flipped from left tackle to right this offseason, and Coach Dennis Allen has said that all parties involved – Allen, Penning and the team – have seen improvement but want to see more, Allen said there isn’t a birthright to the starting spot for Penning.

Allen said despite uneven play from Penning, no one behind him has stepped up to lock down the position.

"We don't run a charity organization where we just give things away," Allen said Wednesday. "Guys have to go out and earn it, and you start somewhere, right? I'm looking for, where are the signs that say, 'Coach, you need to put me in there.'

"Where we're at today, I still feel like we've got the right five guys out there, but we're continuing to evaluate all those spots."

IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT: Just in case you haven't been paying attention, just like last year, the Saints have a competition going at kicker (incumbent Blake Grupe and rookie Charlie Smyth) and at punter (incumbent Lou Hedley and rookie Matthew Hayball). Allen spoke about the battle at punter Wednesday.

"Both have strong legs, both have had really good days, both have some things that they still need to try to improve on," he said. "And I think it's a legitimate competition there. We're not ready to make any decisions, we'll let these preseason games play out. But I do think it's a good competition."

Hedley and Hayball both are from Australia and are friends.

"You've got another Aussie in here with Matty, and he's doing great," Hedley said. "We're pretty good buddies. The kitchen is hot right now in the specialists' room, I think it's like that in most of the rooms with the Saints. So it's kind of good. Competition is great. It's the National Football League, it's always great to have good competition."

An improvement from last season that the Saints wanted to see Hedley make was longer, more traditional punts when the situation warrants. The Aussie-style punter had a 43-yard gross average and 39.8-yard net, with 31 of 75 punts downed inside the 20, last season.

"I think when you look at Lou and the season that he had last year, we kind of put together a chart in terms of all of his kicks and the thing that comes out is, there's a lot of consistency," Allen said. "If you just look at it, plot it on a graph, all the dots are kind of in the same area.

"And so you know exactly what you're getting, and there's a comfort level to that. And you see some of these other plots and there'll be one dot over here, which is a really long kick and flips the field, but there'll be one over here that is one of these 20-yarders, or 25-yarders. I like that I know from a consistency standpoint pretty much what I'm getting.

"I do think he's gotten better in terms of some traditional punts instead of the end over end, Aussie style. And yet, I still think that's an area that he can still work to improve on."

All-Access Photos: 2024 Saints Training Camp practice 8/14/24