New Orleans Saints have two of the top five offensive tackles

The New Orleans Saints are no strangers to having a solid offensive line and a big reason as to why that’s the case is they have two of the best bookends in the league.

Anthony Treash of Pro Football Focus recently released his offensive tackle rankings and Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead came in at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively.

Here was what Treash said about Ramczyk:

"Ramczyk’s 90.8 overall grade in 2019 ranked first among tackles, but he took a small step back in 2020, with his grade dropping to 81.6. Still, since entering the league in 2017, Ramczyk has been the most valuable tackle by a substantial margin. He has generated 1.38 WAR in his four years, over four-tenths better than second place. Among every tackle since 2006, when PFF began grading, only legendary Cleveland Brown Joe Thomas produced a higher PFF grade in his first four NFL seasons than Ramczyk."

The Saints made an obvious decision in extending Ramczyk on a five-year deal, giving them their right tackle for the next half-decade. There could be a chance that they move him to left tackle should they not be able to keep Armstead in the Big Easy but wherever they put Ramczyk, he’ll be one of the best in the game at his position.

Treash offered this analysis on Armstead:

"Armstead has established himself as a top tackle in the NFL ever since he took over as a starter on the left side in his 2014 sophomore campaign. The Arkansas-Pine Bluff product is the third-highest-graded left tackle and the sixth-most valuable tackle overall over the past seven years. He has produced a top-10 pass-blocking grade in each of the past six years now and is more than capable of playing at a No. 1 level, as he proved in 2018. That year, he ranked second in both pass-blocking grade and run-blocking grade en route to earning the top overall mark at the position (90.4)."

Now that Ramczyk is locked up, it’d be wonderful if New Orleans could get Armstead taken care of with an extension of his own. This will be trickier, of course, as left tackles are much more expensive than right tackles and Armstead is heading into his age 30 season, so if they gave him a similar extension as to what they gave to Ramczyk, he’d be in his mid-30s at the end of it.

The New Orleans Saints are lucky to have two of the best tackles in the league.

With a new quarterback under center this year, having two of the best bookends in the sport is a surefire way to help the signal-caller succeed. Jameis Winston likes to drop back and let the football fly and he’ll have the perfect offensive line to help him do just that.

If Taysom Hill is the one who wins the job, he likes to take off with the football and dash for a first down. The offensive line will be capable of opening up running lanes for him and star running back Alvin Kamara and we all know the run game is the Saints’ bread and butter.

Ramczyk and Armstead are the two unsung heroes of the Saints’ offense and it’s good to know that at least one of them will be in the Big Easy for the long haul.