Permanence hasn't been confirmed, but the New Orleans Saints' shuffle along the offensive line suggests Trevor Penning could open the season at a new position for the third straight year.
On Thursday as the Saints held their third workout in Phase 3 of OTAs, Penning lined up at left guard; he opened 2024 at right tackle and started all 17 games, and played left tackle in '23. Penning, a first-round pick in '22, played left tackle his first two seasons.
His wasn't the only move; Taliese Fuaga, the team's 2024 first-round pick who started every game at left tackle last season, lined up at right tackle and rookie Kelvin Banks Jr., this year's first-round pick, was at left tackle. Center Erik McCoy and right guard Cesar Ruiz remained in their usual spots.
Saints first-year coach Kellen Moore said Penning can fit at left guard, but emphasized there will be line movement as New Orleans seeks the best five to put on the field.
"His play style, his physicality is what jumps off the tape, so we'll allow him to play fast, free and confident because when he plays like that, he's going to be a really, really good player," Moore said.
"We'll see how it goes. Obviously, continuity is a really important aspect for those guys but we'll play with some different personnel packages, just moving those guys around. Because ultimately, in season there will be things that come up and you have to have guys that have played other things and have different exposures. But we'll try and build on continuity as well."
Moore noted that his offensive staff has had success helping players transition from tackle to guard, and used Mekhi Becton as an example. Last season with the Eagles, when Moore was offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl LIX champions, Becton moved from tackle to guard and started 15 games for the Eagles. He'd been a tackle in his previous 31 NFL games.
Moore said the conversation about shifting Penning occurred prior to the draft.
"We feel great about Trevor and it's just a matter of putting the best five out there on the field, giving ourselves opportunities and the versatility that that provides," Moore said. "Trevor's physicality and his demeanor and the way he plays, we feel like guard presents him a great opportunity.
"We know the great progress he has made at tackle as well, so we feel like this gives us a really good opportunity to evaluate him at that guard spot, let him keep doing what he does and good things are going to happen."
Moore said there was no concern about moving Fuaga back to right tackle, the only position Fuaga had played before moving to left tackle for the Saints.
"I don't really care about left-tackle, right-tackle components," Moore said. "In this league, the edge rushers go wherever the matchups go and they're going to go wherever they line up. So, (Fuaga) has spent a lot of time at right in his whole life, he spent (time) at left last year. Sometimes I think we make bigger deals out of it than it really is, because you talk to Tali and he said, 'OK, cool.' Next day, it's easy as can be.
"You've got to have really, really good tackles on both sides. At the end of the day that's what this thing is about. Edge rushers are going to line up in a lot of different spots and so you've got to have the talent on both those spots, and we feel like with Kelvin and Tali, we've got two guys that feel great about tackle.
"Trevor's going to be able to play guard, which is going to be a tremendous asset for us, gets us really good players on the field. And we know those guys can play other positions as well. We feel like we've got a really deep crew there, as well."
The goal, he said, not only is to put the best five on the field, but also is to establish cohesion with the group.
"I think one thing with the offensive line: That group has to be really, really interconnected," Moore said. "So much of it is verbal but so much it is non-verbal. Those guys are in combinations and working together more than probably any other group in this entire game.
"The right tackle and the right guard spend so many times in combination blocks and they have to be perfectly aligned and hit it at the same time, and have these verbal communications. But at times there's non-verbal communication and so the more time these guys spend time together jelling, communicating, being on the same page is a huge, huge advantage for any offense in this league."
