The Saints haven’t been happy with the play of their offensive line this summer, which is the impetus behind several developments in New Orleans.
The team is giving 2015 first-round pick Andrus Peat a look at left guard after he failed to impress on the other side of the line, leaving Tim Lelito and Senio Kelemete to take their competition to the right side. All three will be in action on Thursday as coach Sean Payton said the team will play their starters for at least some of the first quarter of Thursday’s game against the Ravens.
“We’re going to play a lot of our guys early on in this game, and I think it’s important that those guys get work at those positions,” Payton said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “So, our plan early in the first quarter is to play our starters and then make a transition at some point. There’ll be a handful of players who we’ll continue to give more snaps to, and [Peat] would be a candidate along with the right guard position. A lot of it will just be dependent on kind of the numbers and where we’re at at the start of the second quarter.”
Should the Saints still find their guards lacking, they could turn to veteran Khalif Barnes. Payton announced Tuesday that Barnes, a 2005 third-round pick by the Jaguars, has signed with the team after spending the last seven years with the Raiders. He has experience as both a guard and a tackle.
