To be as successful on offense as the New Orleans Saints were during Sean Payton's 15 years on the job with that team, good offensive line play is somewhat of a no-brainer. The Saints may not have been widely revered during the last 10 years as having the best offensive line in the league, but they weren't just getting by in that regard, either.
Upon his arrival to Denver, I think a lot of people obviously expect Sean Payton to make the Denver Broncos offense better as a whole, but a huge part of that is going to be seeing an upgraded offensive line. The offensive line was a huge focus of the offseason for Payton and the Broncos, bringing in former Saints right tackle Zach Strief as the Broncos' new offensive line coach before going out in free agency and making a couple of big-money signings in guard Ben Powers and tackle Mike McGlinchey.
If we look back over the last 10 years, what kinds of tendencies do we see from Payton's Saints as it pertains to the offensive line? When you look at roster construction, what Payton values in terms of versatility, how many guys he keeps, where they spend money or where they invest in the NFL Draft.
I looked back at the last 10 years of Saints offensive lines (not including 2022 when Payton was retired) to find out what, if anything, we can glean as far as Payton's tendencies carrying over to Denver.
Sean Payton offensive line tendencies coming to Denver Broncos?
1. Generally 8, sometimes 9 linemen made it
One of the big question marks every year is simply -- how many?
2012: 8
2013: 8
2014: 8
2015: 8
2016: 10
2017: 8
2018: 10
2019: 9
2020: 8
2021: 8
How many linemen are you going to keep? If Payton's recent history tells us anything, the answer to that question is eight, possibly nine. In seven of Payton's last 10 years with the Saints, they kept just eight guys on the offensive line with interior players who obviously had the versatility to play multiple positions behind the starting lineup.
If you look at the Denver Broncos roster right now, I think it's tough to project less than nine or 10 guys and on my latest 53-man roster projection, I had them keeping nine. Would it be unheard of to keep nine for Payton? Absolutely not, but it is quite interesting that the majority of the last decade in New Orleans, he kept just eight.
That could be due to wanting quality elsewhere on the roster, it could be due to the NFL's gameday roster rules...Whatever the case, Payton typically kept just eight guys.
A fair question at this point -- do the Broncos even have eight NFL-caliber offensive linemen on the roster? That leads to another observation from Payton's time with the Saints...
2. Payton's willingness to go with unproven backups
Having homegrown talent on the offensive line has seemingly always been part of Sean Payton's DNA as a head coach, which isn't surprising at all. When you consider that Payton is a branch of the Bill Parcells coaching tree, it's no secret that building in the trenches has always been a priority, but the Saints didn't seem to really scoff at former undrafted guys, late-round guys, or players they acquired by others means when you look at the reserves on the offensive line.
What really tipped me off to this was the fact that in 2021, when the Saints were a nine-win team, their offensive line dealt with some injuries and the top backups made it into the lineup at some point or another. Players like former UDFAs Calvin Throckmorton and James Hurst were the primary reserves for Payton along with 2021 sixth-round pick Landon Young.
A lot of people seem to have concerns right now about the Denver Broncos' reserve offensive linemen, which is understandable. Projecting the top backups right now is tough because there's not much experience there. But perhaps Payton's history should give us at least a bit of comfort.
At least guys like Isaiah Prince, Luke Wattenberg, and Alex Forsyth were drafted.
In 2020, the Saints kept four reserve offensive linemen, three of which were 2019 college free agents. In 2019, his top backups included seventh-round pick Will Clapp, a rookie free agent, a street free agent, and the most notable name -- Nick Easton.
Now, this is obviously all about Payton being okay putting faith in his backups as undrafted guys, late-round guys, former street free agents, or lower-priced veterans. But what about the starting lineup?
3. Sean Payton's Saints invested heavily in OL early in the draft
So we discussed the fact that Sean Payton's offensive lines typically included some unheralded guys as backups, but what about the starting lineup? Well, this is where there was quite a bit of early-round investment.
Especially recently.
As of 2021, the Saints had assembled an offensive line with 2013 third-round pick Terron Armstead as a mainstay, but they had three first-round picks in right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, left guard Andrus Peat, and right guard Cesar Ruiz. The other starter -- center Erik McCoy -- was a second-round pick the Saints moved up to get.
Before Ruiz and McCoy came along, remember the Saints signed guard Larry Warford to a big-money contract to play that position as well.
Prior to the center position being stabilized, remember the Saints also struck a blockbuster deal with the Seahawks, sending Jimmy Graham to Seattle in a deal that included veteran center Max Unger.
So, while it's important to note that Payton and the Saints clearly took pride in identifying home-grown talent for the offensive line, they always invested heavily in it regardless, at least when you're talking about the last 10 years. And I do think it's important to make that distinction because it's just so rare in today's NFL to find guys like Jahri Evans, Jermon Bushrod, Carl Nicks, and even a seventh-round pick like Zach Strief.
That's not to say the Saints ruled out late-round guys, but it was not nearly as common to see late-round draft picks in the starting lineup for the Saints over the last 10 years as the mainstays.
We saw the Broncos go after Mike McGlinchey and Ben Powers this offseason as big-money free agents, which lends even more credence to what we're saying here.
Conclusions to be drawn for Denver Broncos
What conclusions can we draw from this?
Long-term, I think it's safe to assume the Denver Broncos will be in the market for offensive linemen within the first two rounds of the NFL Draft. They obviously didn't have either of those this year (at least, not to start with) but the first two rounds of the NFL Draft will present you with the highest hit rate on the offensive line, at least that is the way things appear to be trending in today's NFL. It looks like Payton is well aware of that and has been for quite some time.
Another conclusion to be drawn is that it shouldn't be surprising if the Denver Broncos do go into the season without many proven commodities behind the starters on the offensive line. They might not be as inclined to go after guys with a bunch of starts under their belts like we saw from the Broncos last year, bringing in Cam Fleming and Billy Turner.
It's also probably safe to say that the preference at this point for Payton to keep eight guys on that offensive line with maybe a couple of players who are tackles only, but then interior linemen who can float around as needed. You look at someone like Cesar Ruiz, for instance, drafted as a center but then moving to right guard. Don't be shocked to see the interior guys asked to be able to play at least two positions, if not three.
Perhaps one of the most important things to note about Payton is that over the last 10 years, it seems like he values continuity above almost everything else. Of course, every leader of every NFL team would love to be able to have continuity year over year if possible, but it seems like he and the Saints were willing to make necessary sacrifices to get that done as far as what they did with the rest of the roster.