Trevor Penning did not have a great debut for the New Orleans Saints

After a long wait, New Orleans Saints fans finally got to see their other first-round pick, Trevor Penning, on the field for a regular-season NFL snap this past weekend. It didn't go great.

I'll preface this by saying that Penning didn't play a ton in his NFL debut, taking just six snaps and often lining up as an extra lineman. When he was on the field though, it wasn't inspiring football that we saw from him. He finished his first-ever game with a PFF grade of 28.0 with an abysmal passing-blocking grade of 8.0. His run-blocking was much better, as he notched a 60.9 grade in that department.

The thing that most Saints fans probably remember about this game was the penalty called on Penning that negated a 40-yard pass interference play on the 49ers. It was the right call so I'm not blaming the officials on that one. Penning needs to be better about this in the future.

Trevor Penning debut leaves a lot to be desired

I'm not going to put too much stock into this performance from Penning. It was his first-ever NFL game and he hadn't played football since his final game with Northern Iowa last season. There was naturally going to be some struggles from the rookie.

At this point, the Saints don't have much to lose by continuing to give Penning added reps. They're 4-8 and while the division is still within reach, this team should have no business even thinking about the playoffs.

After finishing the game as the team's worst-graded player on offense, there's plenty of room for improvement for Penning. Don't let this one game get you down on the Northern Iowa product.