It’s no secret that the New Orleans Saints offensive line is in a bad spot. They struggled to pave the way on running plays and keep Derek Carr upright when he dropped back to pass. Second-year left tackle Trevor Penning was benched after failing to make much progress early in the season. Veteran right tackle Ryan Ramczyk’s future is uncertain given his injury issues. And their best option on the left side, Andrus Peat, is headed for free agency.
So it makes sense for them to be looking at offensive tackle prospects in the 2024 NFL draft class. But they need to learn from their mistakes, which isn’t the case in this projection from the Bleacher Report NFL scouting department. Another raw, slow-to-develop athlete isn’t the answer. However, B/R has the Saints picking Oklahoma right tackle Tyler Guyton at No. 14 overall.
Here’s the explanation on the pick from B/R’s Brandon Thorn:
“Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton has elite size (6’7″, 328 lbs) and athletic ability, but he’s similarly raw, so this would carry some risk. The bet is on upside, which Guyton absolutely provides with better feet and more natural movement skills in pass protection than Penning. That could provide enough comfort for the team to come back to the tackle table so quickly.”
Guyton could grow into a quality starter with time, which hasn’t been the case with Penning. It helps that he’s recorded more than 1,000 snaps at a blueblood program the last two years as opposed to making the jump from a lower level of competition. As Thorn observed, Guyton is going to the NFL with cleaner feet, which has often been Penning’s undoing.
But the Saints aren’t in a position to sit and wait for another inexperienced player to pick things up on the job, at least not on this scale. Guyton came out of high school as a three-star defensive lineman and transferred to Oklahoma after sitting on the bench for two years at TCU. They haven’t developed offensive linemen well enough since hiring Doug Marrone as the position coach in 2022 to invest in another project like this. If the Saints are going to draft an offensive tackle early, they should target someone with the right combination of experience and athletic upside. It’s not clear yet whether Guyton checks both boxes.
