Ranking the 3 most under-appreciated Saints in 2020

Terron Armstead

Ryan Ramczyk is starting to get recognition as one of the league’s best tackles. His counterpart, Terron Armstead is also one of the best in the league as the duo, according to PFF, is the best offensive tackle pair in the NFL.

Armstead, who had injury issues the last few seasons, played 15 of 16 games in 2019 after playing ten a season the prior two. A Pro Bowler the last two seasons, Armstead gave up just one sack in 579 pass-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus.

“Armstead joins him as one of the best pass-blockers in the NFL. Over the past five regular seasons, the only three tackles with 2,000 or more offensive snaps and a better pass-blocking grade than Armstead (91.4) are David Bakhtiari, Joe Thomas and Andrew Whitworth. He has recorded pass-blocking grades of 80.0 or higher in each of those seasons, including 85.0 or higher in four of five years. That kind of stability is easy to take for granted, but it shouldn’t be. The Saints, without question, have two of the best tackles in the NFL,” PFF’s Ben Linsey wrote.

While Andrus Peat, Ramczyk, Erik McCoy, and now Cesar Ruiz are all oftentimes mentioned as key factors for the team’s line, Armstead is really the force that holds this line together. The three in the middle have been paramount to elongating Brees’ career.

CBS Sports ranked Armstead the seventh-best offensive lineman in the NFL.

Cook, Armstead and Davis are all not mentioned too much in the Saints success but each are vastly important for what New Orleans does on a weekly basis.