New Orleans Saints Not Targeting Veteran QB?! | Could Trevor Penning Move Back To Guard?

New Orleans Saints Not Targeting Veteran QB?! | Could Trevor Penning Move Back To Guard?

Ross Jackson, host of Locked On Saints. You know, he’s doing big things over on Louisiana Sports.net as well. Ross, what’s going on, man? How you doing? Hey, buddy. Doing great, man. Thanks so much for having me on. Good morning to you. Uh, did I hear Alandre ask you how you were doing in a time zone that’s not the central time zone, and I feel really bad for calling you this early. Oh, dude. No, no worries at all. I’m always up this early. This ain’t no thing. Yeah, I’m over in uh I’m over in Salt Lake at the moment. Last day of my trip. Uh getting away for a little bit. So, uh, nice 6:30 a.m. this morning. Like, this ain’t nothing. Oh my gosh. I We call you at 6:30 when you’re trying to get away from sports. Uh, Ross, you could just tell me. Oh, no. Not away from sports. Away from heat. Okay, that that part I Look, I was outside at a baseball tournament this weekend. I can fully get behind that. So, yeah, Ross, we always do appreciate the time. And I want to have you on because uh looks like the Saints will not be adding a veteran quarterback. And I think that is very newsworthy. I mean, certainly if it’s it’s not Aaron Rogers, you’re trying to think what veteran would it be because now, like we know, you’ve got a very very young quarterback room, but it sounds like the Saints are going to roll with that young quarterback room. Yeah, sounds like it. Um, this has been sort of building to this point here for, you know, since pretty much the retirement of of Derek Carr and even even before that when many of us were pretty certain that he was not going to be a part of the 2025 plans, at least in some way or another. Um, and look, you’ve got uh young guys in that room right now. Your eldest is a third-year quarterback in Jay Kainer. You’ve got a secondyear guy in Spencer Rattler. And you got a pair of rookies, you know, one drafted and Tyler Shuck, one undrafted, uh, and Hunter Deckers. And it seems like that’s the the position group that they want to roll with at least going into training camp. We’ll see how things change because obviously, you know, look, you have a a young room, you have a a winless room, uh, on top of that, which isn’t shocking when you have a young room. Um, and you have, you know, a 36-y old head coach that, you know, has won with guys like, yes, Jaylen Herz, Dak Prescott, and and, uh, Justin Herbert, but he’s also one with guys like Tanner McKe, Kenny Picket, and Cooper Rush, right? Yeah. And so, the Saints feel really confident in what it is that Kell Moore, you know, should could be able to do with this young group. I’ll throw, you know, Doug Nusmeer, the offensive coordinator in there who’s been at each of those other previous three stops with Kell Moore as well. You add in Scott Tolsine, the quarterback coach who support all three of those guys, former NFL quarterbacks. So maybe they feel they’re the veterans uh in the room uh until proven otherwise. And so we’ll see, but I think that’s the definitely direction they want to go right now. Oh man, you just made me feel really old, Ross. Not only did I turn 40 a couple of days ago, but Scott Tolsey was like a young quarterback that came to us in San Diego and now he’s like this, you know, very wellrespected quarterback coach. Yeah. Yeah. Well, remember he’s he he’s still a young quarterback. On top of that, don’t don’t make yourself feel too bad. This will be the first time that my you know, I’m separated by one year to a head coach that I’m covering. You know what I mean? like it’s it’s it’s kind of a wild situation that like you have that sort of influx of of young co coaching talent, but then you also have sort of this kind of variety of coaches in different places in their careers, too. Like it’s a really uniquely built coaching path. And Ross, I mean, when you look at Tyler Shuck as well, like he is like is a rookie. Like I don’t care how old you are, you’re a rookie. there’s things you’re going to go through, but also like with him turning 26 when the season starts, like the NFL no longer has it where it’s like, “Okay, look, we’re going to draft this quarterback. We’re going to ease him into the situation. We’re going to have this veteran quarterback kind of start the first six games and then this guy’s going to That’s no longer the NFL either.” Like we saw in last year’s draft class. Like those guys outside of Michael Penn who ended up being the starter, like they were the guy from day one. Even JJ McCarthy when he goes down with injury, he was still going to be the guy. Sam Darnold was going to be the backup. And so that’s really that’s what it is now in the NFL. And so when you’ve got this young coach, be it head coach and the quarterback coach and then very experienced offensive coordinator. Like I would assume like Tyler Shuck is going to be the front runner certainly in this job. Like do you have it any different right now? Like do you see Spencer Rattler maybe being even with Tyler Shuck? I I think that he certainly can be. I think that the the seven games of experience that he has, the six games of starting experience that he has definitely means something and I think that he deserves a shot. But I look, I I think this is Tyler Shuck’s job to lose. I mean, he was the handpicked guy by the head coach in Kell Moore and I think that that means a lot more than maybe people might expect it to mean or whatever that might be. Like, I don’t know that I would necessarily call this a fair fight, you know what I mean? Uh and and and you’re right, like you know, the idea of him being a rookie and needing to sit and have time, that’s just not how the NFL works anymore. There’s no discernable difference in, you know, uh success or or lack of success between the the quarterbacks that start uh right away and the quarterbacks that sit behind right away. I mean, it’s easy to point to guys like Patrick Mahomes and say, “Well, he sat down for for a while before he, you know, jumped into a jumped into a starting role.” But then, you know, you can always pull a Jaden Daniels and say, “Look, this is a guy that started right away and took a team to the NFL championship in his first year, you know.” Yeah. And so there’s not really a discernable difference. Like there are examples of success and lack of success in both approaches waiting to start a quarterback or starting a quarterback right away. And and there’s not enough of one or the other that has found any success or that hasn’t found success. So I think that the best thing that the Saints can do here is a of course pick the best option, right? So, who looks best during training camp, who looks best during the the portion of the preseason until it takes you to get to to the point to where you make your your uh your decision and to let Kell Moore choose his guy and and you know, whoever it is that he decides to be that week one starter. And I think as long as those two things happen and you check both of those boxes, uh I I think that that’s what will determine whether or not you’re going to find success in that quarterback or not. catching up with our guy Ross Jackson here on OTB. Uh, one of the other things that came up over the weekend to step away from the quarterback position, there was some rumors and look, these are social media rumors, but there was some rumors maybe like the Steelers and Chris Ave and maybe a potential trade there, which I just would not be in favor of because you need weapons if you’re the New Orleans Saints. Does that rumor have any legs? It it has legs in one portion of the conversation, which is that the from my understanding and the people that I’ve spoken to that that have knowledge of the situation, the Steelers reached out to New Orleans to see, you know, hey, is Chris Olive available? And I think that that tells you a couple things. I think it tells you one that obviously Chris Olive has value across the NFL. I know he’s dealing he’s dealt with the concussions last year and he dealt with concussions through his career and and everything and and people will often make the comment that oh he’s one concussion away from retirement. We don’t know that. No one knows that. Like that’s that’s that man’s decision and his decision only. And so I’m not going to lobby any type of accusations like that against Chris Ave. But I think that it does show you that there’s value in this player around the NFL. I think that’s one. I think number two, it gives you a little bit of the idea, the perception of the New Orleans Saints around the league, right? Hey, let’s check and see if they’re rebuilding, right? They lost their car. They don’t have the starting quarterbacks that they thought they were going to have. They have a winless quarterback room, a very young quarterback room. Um, you know, they have a first-time head coach. Maybe they’re willing to move off from some of their young foundational pieces. And the third thing that tells you is that they’re not great. The Saints aren’t ready to do that uh because they’re not interested in trading Crystal Lav. And so what you’re going to hear a lot of is that the Steelers reached out. The Saints wanted a high price and therefore the Saints were, you know, at least willing to deal. But really, if you have a player that you’re not willing to move, you never walk into a negotiation and say, “This isn’t happening.” You just set a really high price for that player. And if that team’s willing to meet that high price, then you have the opportunity to say, “Nah, I was just playing.” Or, “Yes, we’ll take that deal.” You know what I mean? But that’s not how a negotiation works. You don’t walk into a negotiation, say, “No.” And so so it has legs from the standpoint that the Steelers were were reaching out and that the Steelers were interested, but the the Saints weren’t actively shopping Chris Olive. This was a reach out by the Steelers and the Saints effectively saying like we value this player very highly and we’re not willing to move off of him for, you know, pennies or anything like that, showing that they’re not into the idea of that whole, you know, uh, well, rebuild. Let’s see, you know, chip off some foundational pieces, pick up draft capital. They’re not in that mode yet. Another position that certainly is going to be intriguing throughout, you know, training camp and even now, I mean, but certainly how it plays out throughout training camp. And I want to ask you this. Okay, so not today, but if we were September the 1st, left to right on your offensive line, what do you think that’s going to look like? Because I mean, you you look, you’ve got so many uh pieces and draft capital into this offensive line with first round picks, second round picks, but what do you think it’s going to look like left to right? Yeah, I’ve been I’ve kind of gone back and forth on this if I’m honest with you, Jake. So, for me, I I’ll start with the tackles. Kelvin Banks Jr. for me plugs in at his natural position, left tackle. Tele moves back to his natural position, right tackle. That’s an easier shift for you than teaching Kelvin Banks Jr. a new position. You could just put these guys back in their natural positions, which I think is the benefit of Tales Pam. So, that’s why I see the tackle shaping up. The two other guys that are absolutely sure, Eric McCoy at center and then right guard is going to be uh Caesar Ru. So I’m jumping around. I’m not going left to right. I’m building the suspense. I’m sorry. Um at left guard though, that’s where my big question mark is. Two weeks ago, I would have told you Dylan Raidens, but the more that I have gone into digging into Kell Moore’s offensive scheme and the run schemes that are working in the NFL right now, you look at Philadelphia, you look at um you look at Baltimore. Yeah. big guards are a big part of that success and typically converted guards that were tackles that moved inside. Uh these guys are being asked to pull, they’re being asked to run those stutters, those weak side counters, get up ahead of the uh the rusher, all those other things. And so I’m starting now to lean a little bit more towards Trevor Pinning at left guard, which is something I’ve I’ve pushed back about a lot. Uh because I think if you have a guy at tackle and then you move them inside, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work. There’s no guarantee that that’s going to help Trevor Penning. I think it’s worth a shot. I I think it’s worth a shot with Trevor Penning because you’d probably like to keep one of your first round pick investments on your starting offensive line. And that might be the best way that might be the best way to do it. And so 325 pounds, good mover, great run blocker, aggressive player. That’s actually a pretty nice set of qualities to have as a pulling guard. Like you’d probably like that guy in front of you, right? Like that would be a guy you would you wouldn’t mind running behind. And so I’m kind of leaning now towards the idea of the converted tackle to guard much like Mai Beckton in Philadelphia last year. Um Baltimore has a similar player uh last year and these guys were 350, you know, enormous players. Trevor Penning is not that guy, but at 325 he’s he’s one of the biggest offensive linemen they have, right? And so if they can do that, get him pulling and get him active in that run game that way, I think that that might be something that helps him with his his career and maybe explains a little bit about why the Saints weren’t willing to pick up his fifth year option as a tackle because now if they can get him converted to a guard, that contract becomes a guard contract instead of a tackle contract. Yeah. Then that is going to be a completely different contract. Obviously tackles going to make more than guards. I know this because fullbacks make less than running backs. Yes. Unfortunately, I need to ask Kellen. I haven’t asked Kellen yet what the role of fullback is in his in his offense, but you know, when we get back out there for OTA, I have that written down as one of my questions because I really really want to know because Adam Prince is still on that roster. Yeah. And so I’m I’m really curious to see what he what he feels is, you know, the use of that that position. Just hold it down for us, Ross. That’s all we can ask. Just ask a question. At least somebody’s talking about fullbacks. Ross, hey, you’re the man. I know you’re out there. You’re in uh in the mountains. woke up a little bit earlier already up and and doing work there. So, we appreciate your time as always, sir.

On Off The Bench, Jacob Hester was joined by Ross Jackson to talk about the latest with the New Orleans Saints.

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