The New Orleans Saints have several questions to answer in the 2024 season, but they're happy with the progress on at least one of them.
The team is encouraged with what its seen in recovery from veteran RT Ryan Ramczyk, who was sidelined for the final few games of this past season due to a balky left knee.
“I think Ryan is getting better," Dennis Allen said at the NFL Scouting Combine this week. "You know, he’s obviously … got a knee that he and we are gonna have to manage, but we feel much better about where he’s at today than where he was, maybe a month, month and a half ago.”
That's certainly a positive review for a player that certainly didn't project major confidence late in the year when he spoke about having to get more information in the offseason. Allen said that he has had a minor procedure to clear out issues in the knee.
Should the team be able to rely on Ramczyk for 2024 and beyond, that'd certainly add needed security for an OL group that doesn't have clear answers at left guard or tackle heading into next season. Ramczyk has been a mainstay on the Saints OL since he was selected with the final pick of the first round in 2017.
━━
MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
How important is this offseason for Trevor Penning?
“I think it’s huge. I mean, I think, look, here’s the good news. The good news is that, you know, he’s coming in with a clean slate. He’s coming in healthy, so he’s gonna have an opportunity to go through a full offseason program, both from a lifting perspective and from a practice perspective. I think those are two critical things when you’re talking about, still a young guy. I know that he’s going into his third year, but he missed basically his whole rookie season, and then last year, you know, he missed all of the offseason program before being put in as the starting left tackle. So I think this is gonna be an important offseason for him and I think being able to start on a clean slate, with a lot of new eyes on you, I think will be beneficial for him.”
━━
On Klint Kubiak
“The interesting thing is when a new group comes in they kind of look at your team and they look at it from a positive perspective, and so the exciting thing was, you know, I think the offensive staff as a whole was really excited about working with a lot of pieces to the puzzle that we have on offense. And so look, I think that bring an excitement to me, in terms of what I think we can do offensively.”
━━
On taking training camp on the road
“Look, I like training in New Orleans. I like training in the heat, I like being able to have the fans come out to practce. And yet, that heat element is a major factor in terms of, you know, recovery and things of that nature, and so — and I think every now and then it’s good to have change, so I’m kind of excited about it. The motivating factor for it really was all the renovations that we’ve got going on at the facility, but I kind of like the thought of taking the group, you know, out of town and holing them up in a hotel and our guys really developing a bond, you know, during that time.”
━━
On decisions surrounding Marshon Lattimore
“I think it’s about guys that we feel like can help us win football games, guys that we feel like can continue to build the right type of culture here, and guys that are, you know, willing to do the things that are — it’s necessary to do to succeed, so look, like I said, I mean, Marshon is part of our football team. He’s been a big part of our football team. Unfortunately in the last couple years health has been a big factor in that, and so I think the biggest thing is, you know, let’s get Marshon healthy and let’s see where we’re at as a football team, and we’ll get the right guys out there that give us a chance to win.”
