There weren’t many positives to write about in the wake of the New Orleans Saints’ big loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, but left tackle Trevor Penning deserves some praise. The second-year pro was a rare bright spot on offense, allowing just two pressures on 47 snaps in pass protection and dominating as a run blocker — the Saints averaged 5.3 yards per carry running behind the left side of their line but just 3.1 yards per attempt when running to the right.
Sure, Derek Carr didn’t get great use out of the time Penning bought for him. At the end of the day the offense only put 9 points on the board. But we’ll take wins where we can get them, and Penning won most of his reps against a talented Buccaneers rotation at right end. Neither Shaquil Barrett nor Joe Tryon-Shoyinka made much headway against him. Most of their pressures came from the other end of the line.
Penning has gotten better each week. Here are the pressures he’s allowed in each of the Saints’ first four games, per Pro Football Focus charting:
- Week 1 vs. Titans: 6 pressures (2 sacks)
- Week 2 at Panthers: 4 pressures (1 sack)
- Week 3 at Packers: 1 pressure (0 sacks)
- Week 4 vs. Bucs: 2 pressures (0 sacks)
That’s progress. He’s had two solid games in back-to-back weeks, and that’s exactly what the Saints hoped to see from him. Penning needs to keep up the good work and hone his craft while stacking up wins in the trenches.
One more thing: Penning was forecast to be a penalty magnet in the NFL, owing to his violent style of play in college, and that seemed to be the case in the offseason when he was sidelined at a couple of practices for fighting with his teammates. But he’s kept himself clean in games while avoiding hurting the team with penalties. Penning has been fouled just twice on 268 snaps this season, and one of those (a holding penalty) was declined. The other was a false start. He isn’t racking up personal fouls and giving opponents chunks of yardage the way some analysts predicted.
But we’re only going into Week 5. This is encouraging progress, and we need to see more of it. Here’s hoping Penning keeps it up. We’ll take our wins where we can find them.
