Heading into his second year in the NFL, a lot of the focus will be shifting towards offensive tackle Andrus Peat. Based off of what center Max Unger said on Thursday, the expectations are high.
“He’s a supremely talented O-Lineman and we’re expecting quite a bit out of him this year.” Unger said, “We’re asking him to play tackle, we’re asking him to play guard, I think so far he’s done a good job of that, it’s just working with him and getting familiar with him.”
The 2015 first round pick out of Stanford has not lived up to the hype in his rookie season having to play mostly as a guard. But according to Pro Football Focus, when he played as a tackle, he had positive grades in his rookie campaign. Sean Payton in fact touted his ability at tackle during his press conference saying “The tackle position comes easy for him and yet he’s transitioned to guard well.”
The biggest problem in 2015 was that he had to learn two different positions. But as he’s spent time learning how to adapt into the role of a guard, he had the potential to be great as a guard as well as a tackle. Peat is also being given more time at both positions with Terron Armstead currently on the PUP list. Armstead is expected to return later on during training camp and then he will switch out shortly after according to Payton.
If the Saints want to overcome the offensive line woes of the last couple of years and keep Drew Brees safe, the Saints will be need Peat to improve drastically in 2016, and based off of the good words from Payton and Unger it seems like he is starting to do just that.
-Clint Domingue