5 players the Saints missed out on to draft Trevor Penning

Tyler Linderbaum

Six picks after the Saints selected Trevor Penning, another offensive lineman went off the board. This time, it was the Baltimore Ravens adding Tyler Linderbaum to their offense.

The Iowa center dropped a bit in the draft and the Ravens didn't hesitate to scoop him up when they did. Linderbaum has been a rockstar for the Baltimore o-line too, earning a PFF grade of 74.7 as a rookie and 78.3 in year two without allowing a sack during the 2023 regular season.

The Saints have a solid center in Erik McCoy but what's wrong with taking the best player on the board? It's not like one of them couldn't have moved to a different spot on the line. McCoy missed four games in 2022 so imagine how much smoother things could have gone on the o-line with Linderbaum either sliding back to the center spot or coming off the bench to replace McCoy while he was out.

This isn't as frustrating as a miss because the team has McCoy but it still hurts knowing there were better players the Saints could have added over Penning.