The New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams hosted a joint practice on Thursday ahead of the second week of the preseason. Causing issues for everyone in the black and gold was the Rams' pass rush.
The struggles of the offensive line greatly affected both Spencer Rattler's and Tyler Shough's drives, allowing the former to be sacked four times in one drive. Additionally, the Saints' run game struggled to get off the ground. The offensive line were really lucky that it was just a joint practice and not the real thing. These struggles progressing into the regular season would keep the offense from ever getting off the ground.
Head coach Kellen Moore did not seem to be too worried about it post-practice, saying that the offensive line just have to finish the play. "It's got to be process focused," the first-year head coach said to the media.
The Saints offensive line is already hobbled
It's important to note that the Saints were not practicing with all of their offensive linemen. They suffered two injuries to their offensive line just one week into the preseason. Starting LG Trevor Penning suffered a turf toe injury that is expected to keep him out for a few weeks, while backup center Will Clapp sustained a season-ending lisfranc foot injury.
Practicing in Trevor Penning's spot at LG was Dillion Radunz, who struggled mightily at both tackle spots last weekend. However, anybody who might be worried should be glad to know that he was as quiet as a mouse today, going mostly unseen throughout the joint practice. We'll get a deeper look at Radunz at his natural position in the remaining preseason games.
Most of the rush came from the outside, on the edges. Some struggles are to be expected if you try to block the 2024 defensive rookie of the year, Jared Verse. Verse looks primed for an even bigger season, and the joint practice was yet another reminder.
Unfortunately, the Saints tackles were used for that reminder. Taliese Fuaga played well against Verse in their rookie season. In this one day of practice, however, Fuaga and Kelvin Banks Jr. lost the battle to Verse and Byron Young.