Latest / AFR Saints / Saints Clear Path For Ryan Ramczyk To Retire | Is Trevor Penning Long Term Answer At RT?

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Saints Clear Path For Ryan Ramczyk To Retire | Is Trevor Penning Long Term Answer At RT? · AFR Saints

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: AFR on Demand is brought to you by Breck Golf.
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  Speaker 1: full round. Book your tea time today golf dot Breck
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  Speaker 1: dot org. Golf dot Breck dot org. So this should
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: come as no surprise whatsoever. As a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 1: this was very very much expected. But now we kind
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  Speaker 1: of have some clarity. Ryan Ramchick, according to over the Cap,
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  Speaker 1: who broke this first will, has agreed to restructure his contract,
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  Speaker 1: which effectively paves the way for his retirement. And this
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  Speaker 1: probably should come as no surprise. Hat tipped to Nick Underhill,
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  Speaker 1: who was on off the bench with Hester and Ta Bob.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: This was on May sixth, and we've played this audio
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  Speaker 1: for you many times since Nick said it. Remember this
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: was May. This was before this currency. Is this past May,
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  Speaker 1: And you could shrug your shoulders and say, no big deal.
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  Speaker 1: That feels like that's obvious now, but at the time
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't, but Nick said it back in May. I
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  Speaker 1: just don't see him playing again. I just like if
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  Speaker 1: I had to beat today, you're asking me to to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, go to draft a place a bet on it,
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  Speaker 1: Like I'm betting on him not playing. I mean, you
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  Speaker 1: heard t Bob's reaction. That wasn't like that was a
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  Speaker 1: universal thought. But Nick was the first to say it
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  Speaker 1: back at May, and hat tip to him. And even
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  Speaker 1: before then, you know, Dennis Allen kind of let us know.
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  Speaker 1: In March, I believe this was the owner's meetings. It was.
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  Speaker 1: It was the owners meeting in March. And remember ramching
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  Speaker 1: miss time he had the knee injury, and this was
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  Speaker 1: the update d a game in March.
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  Speaker 2: I think it still remains to be seen, you know
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  Speaker 2: what I mean. You know it's Commine. A few weeks ago,
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  Speaker 2: I was feeling a lot better about it, and yet
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that I'm seeing as much progress as
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  Speaker 2: I was hoping to see, you know, at this point.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that still kind of remains to be seen.
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  Speaker 2: But here's the cool thing. We got plenty of time.
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  Speaker 1: That was in March. The cool thing was you had
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  Speaker 1: plenty of time A couple months later is when Nick
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  Speaker 1: made his comment that he didn't think Ramschick played again
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  Speaker 1: in June. Here was Dennis Allen.
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  Speaker 2: But what kind of time by to you have? We
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  Speaker 2: don't have a timeline.
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  Speaker 1: No timeline in June, he's asked in July during this
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  Speaker 1: was the end of July during training camp. But what
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  Speaker 1: about like but still where inquest maybe playing again us?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're gonna leave all options open, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think anything past this season is
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  Speaker 2: off the table.
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  Speaker 1: So clearly one of the things past this season was
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  Speaker 1: Ramchick retiring, and it looks like that's what's going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: So to break this down for you, and I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to bore you with numbers, but effectively, Ryan Ramchick
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  Speaker 1: when he signed his extension back in June of twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, signed an extension that paid him nineteen point
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  Speaker 1: two million dollars per season. He was the only right
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  Speaker 1: tackle at the time paid close to would have left tackle.
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  Speaker 1: He was the highest paid right tackling football.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: He spends all of last season on the pup list
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  Speaker 1: and many expected he would retire. But here's what they've done.
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  Speaker 1: His base this year was eighteen million dollars. They've reduced
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  Speaker 1: it to the minimum of one point twenty five to
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  Speaker 1: five million, So that saves the Saints sixteen point seven
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  Speaker 1: million dollars in cap space this year. Now the money
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  Speaker 1: that twenty three million dollars is still due. If you
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  Speaker 1: were on the Rosteret have to carry a twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: million dollar cap number. So they've saved a ton of
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  Speaker 1: money here. So he'll carry a twelve point three million
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  Speaker 1: dollar cap number this year. Again, I know I'm throwing
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  Speaker 1: out a lot of numbers. Just understand the Saints this year,
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  Speaker 1: by doing this, have brought ramsicks number from twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: down to twelve point three, so they're saving their seventeen
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  Speaker 1: million dollars, but the difference still has to be made up,
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  Speaker 1: and so they'll do that over the next two seasons.
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  Speaker 1: So he'll carry an eleven point oh eight three million
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  Speaker 1: dollar number in twenty twenty five and then eleven point
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  Speaker 1: nine million dollar number in twenty twenty six. So Ryan
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  Speaker 1: Ramchick is still going to count on the Saints books
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  Speaker 1: for the next two seasons. It's just going to be
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  Speaker 1: a much more palatable rate. It helps the Saints get
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  Speaker 1: closer to cap compliance, right Now, according to over the cap,
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  Speaker 1: the Saints, with this work done, are still approximately fifty
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  Speaker 1: million dollars over the salary cap for twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a variety of moves that they'll make, we know,
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  Speaker 1: as the Saints go through their annual exercise of restructuring deals.
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  Speaker 1: But and they're going to have to do that again
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  Speaker 1: to get within cap cap compliance. But here's hoping what
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  Speaker 1: we'll see is the Saints commit to younger, more inexpensive
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  Speaker 1: players while some of these expensive veteran contracts expire. So
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  Speaker 1: there's a couple of ways to look at this. There's
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  Speaker 1: Ramschick's career in total, and then there's what do you
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  Speaker 1: do moving forward. You know, Ramchick played seven seasons and
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  Speaker 1: he's a three time All Pro. You know, you look
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  Speaker 1: at Ryan Ramchick and it is really impressive how mostly
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  Speaker 1: durable he was until the you know, these injuries at
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  Speaker 1: the end, the knee injury at the end caught up
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  Speaker 1: to him. You know, as a rookie, started all sixteen games.
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  Speaker 1: And if you remember when they drafted Ryan Ramchick, that
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  Speaker 1: was part of the Brandon Cooks trade. They traded Brandon Cooks.
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  Speaker 1: They got the Patriots' first round pick, which was number
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  Speaker 1: thirty two overall. They picked Ramchick. Some bald radio guy
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  Speaker 1: told you how dumb it was when you when you
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  Speaker 1: had a right tackle in Zach Streef, why you would
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  Speaker 1: spend a first round pick on a right tackle and
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  Speaker 1: you had all different types of needs. Well, in that camp,
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  Speaker 1: Zach Streef got injured, missed the season. His career was over,
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  Speaker 1: and Ryan Ramschick started from game one and became your
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  Speaker 1: franchise right tack. A great lesson to say, if there's
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  Speaker 1: a great player of great value on the board, you
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  Speaker 1: take him. But Ramsick played and started every game as
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  Speaker 1: a rookie, started fifteen games in twenty eighteen. They rested
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  Speaker 1: everybody the final week that year, if you remember, that
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  Speaker 1: was the Nolan not call year. Started every game in
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  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, started every game in twenty twenty in the
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  Speaker 1: COVID year, and then he had the injury in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty one which cost him six games, started every game
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, and then the knee injuries cost
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  Speaker 1: him in twenty twenty three, where he played just twelve games,
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  Speaker 1: and then his season was over. His career was over.
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  Speaker 1: So you know, we're gonna look at Ryan Ramschick as
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  Speaker 1: a guy that played seven years. Three of his seven
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  Speaker 1: years in the NFL, he was an All Pro. He
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  Speaker 1: was very much on his way to a Hall of
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  Speaker 1: Fame caliber career. But he's going to be one of
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  Speaker 1: those guys that we look back and say, what could
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  Speaker 1: have been a seven year career? That could have and
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  Speaker 1: maybe should have been much much more. But it gives
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  Speaker 1: you great appreciation for a guy like say, Andrew Whitworth,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't it. Andrew Whitworth played sixteen NFL seasons at left tackle,
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  Speaker 1: and in twelve of the sixteen he played in every game.
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  Speaker 1: There's only four seasons where he didn't play a full season.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's remarkable to be that durable at a
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  Speaker 1: position like that for that long when you have a
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  Speaker 1: guy like Ramchick who after seven years, his body broke down.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll have plenty of time to think about and
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  Speaker 1: talk about Ryan Ramchick and his contributions to the Saints.
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  Speaker 1: He will no doubt be a Saints Hall of Famer.
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  Speaker 1: He will undoubtedly fall short of the Pro Football Hall
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  Speaker 1: of Fame, having played only seven seasons when he appeared
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  Speaker 1: at one point very clearly on that path. But now
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  Speaker 1: you look forward for the New Orleans Saints and the
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  Speaker 1: answer is very likely Trevor Penning. And this was one
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  Speaker 1: of those years where we looked at Trevor Penning starting
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  Speaker 1: at right tackle and wondered, you know, could he maintain
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  Speaker 1: that spot? Could he prove to be a starting caliber
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  Speaker 1: player in the NFL? And I think, if nothing else,
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  Speaker 1: what Trevor Penning showed us this year is that while
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  Speaker 1: he may not ever be an elite starting player in
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  Speaker 1: the NFL, he at least proved that he can be
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  Speaker 1: a starting player in the NFL, similar to Casar Ruiz.
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  Speaker 1: But that's the problem you have is when you got
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  Speaker 1: two first round picks on the right side of your
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  Speaker 1: line that are former first round draft picks that are starters,
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  Speaker 1: that are really low level starters. You invested tremendous draft
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  Speaker 1: capital in those guys when you did get starters, but
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  Speaker 1: you didn't get great players. So that is an undeniable
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  Speaker 1: down grade from Ryan Ramchick to Trevor Penning. This year,
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  Speaker 1: Trevor Penning's offensive grade was a sixty, His past block
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  Speaker 1: grade was a fifty one, his run block grade was
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  Speaker 1: a seventy, So much better run blocker than pass blocker.
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  Speaker 1: As we anticipated, as we knew sort of coming out
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  Speaker 1: of school, he was completely incapable of pass blocking as
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  Speaker 1: a left tackle. Moved him to the right side this
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  Speaker 1: year gave him some help and better. He did commit
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  Speaker 1: thirteen penalties. There were two that were negated or off setting,
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  Speaker 1: so really fifteen times he was flagged this year in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen games. So I mean, he was flagged almost every game.
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  Speaker 1: But if there is one thing that I think is
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  Speaker 1: worth pointing out about Trevor Penning, that is a positive, y'all.
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  Speaker 1: He started every game this season at right tackle. He
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  Speaker 1: played one thousand eighty one snaps. You're talking about replacing
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  Speaker 1: a right tackle who durability cost him his career. Here
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  Speaker 1: you have a guy in Trevor Penning who was injured
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  Speaker 1: as a rookie, as a second year player, was just incapable.
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  Speaker 1: But here in his third year he did become a
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  Speaker 1: starter for you and played and started every game for you.
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  Speaker 1: And in a year where every position on your offensive
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  Speaker 1: line got gutted due to injury, the spot where you
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  Speaker 1: were durable the entire season was right tackle with Trevor Penning.
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  Speaker 1: So what's the old adage? The best ability is availability. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he was available for you this year. How much better
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  Speaker 1: can he get in that role is he gets more season.
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  Speaker 1: That'll be the big question for New Orleans and they'll
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  Speaker 1: need an answer. As Ryan ramchick, now we know we'll
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  Speaker 1: retire after just seven seasons in the NFL.