Report: Saints lock up Terron Armstead on 5-year extension

Per ESPN’s Josina Anderson, the New Orleans Saints are signing left tackle Terron Armstead to a 5-year contract extension.

The offseason continues to get sweeter for Terron Armstead, who just received a pay bump in February due to the NFLPA’s Proven Performance Escalator under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Armstead’s base salary increased from $705K to $1.69 million.

On the Saints offensive line, there was no one better than the Arkansas Pine-Bluff product. Head coach Sean Payton said emphatically at the end of December that he wouldn’t trade Armstead for anything, and there wass good reason for his statement. Armstead played hurt a lot of the 2015 season, and was still extremely effective. That’s very rare in today’s NFL.

Armstead was named as a Pro Bowl alternate after being snubbed originally. According to Pro Football Focus, Armstead graded out as the third highest tackle out of a total of 76. His +30.8 overall grade was right behind Cleveland’s Joe Thomas and Dallas’ Tyron Smith. Quite simply put, The 6-foot-5, 304-pound left tackle went up against some of the league’s best pass rushers in 13 games last season, and emerged victorious more often than not. His impact was also felt in the screen game and run blocking.

Armstead’s highest graded games of 2015 came against Indianapolis in Week 7 (+5.1), Carolina in Week 3 (+4.4), and at Tampa Bay in Week 14 (+4.0). Despite injuries, Armstead participated in 952 (80.4 percent) of the team’s offensive snaps.

I’ve said in several articles and interactions on Twitter that if you’re going to look at extending Drew Brees, then you have you lock up Terron Armstead first. Perhaps this is the first concrete sign of something to come. Either way, the Saints have their blind side anchor until 2021. Preventing Armstead from hitting the open market and waiting until the end of the season was perhaps one of the smartest things the Saints have done this offseason.