The 2023 New Orleans Saints season has a lot of intriguing storylines to watch.
But there are two that stand above the rest, as NewOrleans.football reporter Mike Triplett shared this week on SportsTalk: The health of Michael Thomas AND the entire offensive line group.
"With Michael Thomas and with the offensive line, after the last two seasons I’d sign a deal for 75% health," Triplett told Mike Detillier and Bobby Hebert on WWL, "just as long as it doesn’t become nonexistent like the last two years.”
Listen to the full interview with Mike Triplett in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
It's more than a fair point, considering the relative health of both groups. Thomas' struggles to stay on the field have been well documented, with the star WR appearing in just 10 games since his record-setting 2019 campaign due to a combination of ankle injuries, surgeries, setbacks and most recently a toe injury that ended his 2022 season after three games.
The OL hasn't fared much better. First-round pick Trevor Penning began his season on IR with a turf toe injury that required surgery, then ended it with a lisfranc injury that required another surgery and will limit his offseason. Cesar Ruiz, a paragon of health throughout his first two seasons, had his season end in Week 15 with a Lisfranc injury of his own. Erik McCoy has struggled with calf injuries each of the past two seasons. Ryan Ramczyk has dealt with knee issues over the past two seasons, and Andrus Peat has appeared in just 17 games over the past two seasons due to a variety of ailments.
With a major investment in quarterback Derek Carr this offseason, the quality of the protection in front of him is one of the biggest questions entering 2023.
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"If you tell me this offensive line is going to be healthy, I don’t know how the offense can’t be miles and miles better," Triplett said, "I mean, they’ve improved the passing game by leaps and bounds."
And as far as Thomas? The expectations have to be realistic.
"They’re going to have to figure out a way to do it if he’s not available or if he’s missing a chunk of the season, obviously, because hoping for 17 games is obviously tempting fate right now," he continues. "But anything feels like a bonus. What if you got 10 games from him? What if you got 12? What if you got him for the playoffs? It would be an incredible [benefit]."
The Saints kick off the first of their three OTA sessions on May 23, followed by a mandatory mid June and the full training camp kicking off in late July.
MORE FROM TRIPLETT
ON FORCING MORE TAKEAWAYS
“That has to be a big part of the equation on defense. It was almost astonishing how the ball didn’t bounce their way. I mean, there are so many areas where you can’t help but think they’re going to be improved from last season on both sides of the ball. The defensive line is the one area where I don’t know that they can be better, the draft class is going to have to be a big part of that.”
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WIL LUTZ HAS TO BOUNCE BACK
“He admitted it, too, look, one of those misses was one of the best kicks in Saints history. … But no, he went through them, he remembers them. He had the yardage and the details, whatever the exact numbers were, he admits they’re unforgivable. Now, look, I’m going to bet on him, because if you’ve covered the Saints over the last two decades that means we’ve covered about 25 different kickers coming through here. And he’s probably the best one that I’ve seen in that entire stretch, or at least since John Carney when I first started covering the team, and so I’m going to bet on him bouncing back. But you’re absolutely right that that hurt them bad last year when he was coming back off the injury.
"They asked him to take a pay cut, and as of today — I don’t think this will last much longer — he’s competing against two other kickers, first time I’ve ever covered a camp where there’s three kickers on the 90-man roster as of now. I have a feeling they’ll whittle that down to two soon, I think they like this Blake Grupe that they got from Notre Dame, but yea, Wil Lutz is in prove-it mode, there’s no question about it.”
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