The New Orleans Saints now have two of their former players listed on the NFL Top 100 list, with Terron Armstead coming in at No. 67 this year. He isn’t alone. We also noted ex-Saints defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who ranked No. 77. The players ranked nearby included Cooper Kupp at 69, Brandon Aiyuk at 66, Jaylen Waddle at 63, and Bradley Chubb at 62, among others.
Armstead moved on to join the Miami Dolphins back in 2022 after a few seasons of dealing with injuries made the Saints want to look elsewhere. Armstead signed a 5-year, $75 million deal with the Dolphins, including $43.37 million guaranteed, which the Saints frankly could not reasonably match.
Since leaving, Armstead has gone to the Pro Bowl in back-to-back seasons, playing in 13 games in 2022 but just 10 in 2023, showing that while he still is dealing with injuries from time to time they are not limiting his quality of play. According to Pro Football Focus charting, he played 524 offensive snaps in 2023, giving up only 1 sack with 3 penalties against him. In 2022, he played 687 snaps with 5 penalties and 1 sack allowed.
At the end of the day, he would have been a positive player to retain for New Orleans no doubt, but the monetary investment they would have had to make to do so was unlikely to borderline not possible given the current players in need of extensions. It is good to see him back in form though regardless of where it is. At the same time it’s disappointing that the Saints have struggled so badly to replace him. Hopefully Taliese Fuaga can bring the stability at left tackle they’ve been searching for.
