What Should The Saints Do At Offensive Tackle With Ryan Ramczyk's Future In Question?

The Saints may have some time to figure out whether Ryan Ramczyk is in the plan for 2024, but regardless, they shouldn't wait on what happens.

Carolina Panthers v New Orleans Saints / Perry Knotts/GettyImages

While the future isn't totally spelled out for Saints right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, it certainly is cloudy. With the recent update from Dennis Allen at the NFL's Annual League Meeting, the questions are there for New Orleans and the urgency couldn't be higher.

"I think it still remains to be seen," Allen said. "At the Combine a few weeks ago, I was feeling a lot better about it. And yet, I don't know that I'm seeing as much progress as I was hoping to see at this point. But here's the cool thing, we've got plenty of time. I think we're just going to have to wait and see how that goes as we go through all of the offseason and as we get into the training camp aspect."

Allen and the team said there was a long ways to go until the team takes an actual regular season snap, which is true, but the team can't exactly hope and wait for the best possible outcome, nor should they.

"I think more it has just been visiting with him and he isn't quite where I was probably hoping he'd be, and really quite frankly, where he was hoping he'd be. But again, it's a long time before we kick the ball off. So I wouldn't jump to any conclusions right now, but we'll see how it goes over the next three, four, five, six months before we get to the season."

The Saints should address the position, as it seemingly has become the top priority when the team picks at 14th overall in the upcoming draft. Here's some options they should look at and some thought processes on what New Orleans could be thinking.

Figure It Out In-House

While we're not saying this is the best course of action, there are options on the roster that could take the right tackle spot. Landon Young has started plenty of games for the Saints, while free agent signing Oli Udoh has familiarity with the new offensive system Klint Kubiak will install. It won't be surprising to see Young be the team's starter for the foreseeable future until another option presents itself. However, New Orleans does believe a lot in Young's ability.

Go The Free Agent Route

Free agency is obviously ongoing, and there's players that are available. Meckhi Becton is probably one of the top targets to keep in mind, especially given the familiarity with new offensive line coach John Benton. Cameron Erving stepped in several times for the Saints last season and is still available, as well as roughly 40 other players. One thing to really keep in mind is what happens in the UFL, which kicks off in a few days. New Orleans could be heavy scouters there, and it wouldn't surprising to see them find one or two offensive linemen from that league.

Draft The Future

This seems like the most likely answer right now. At 14th, the Saints should be able to get a strong Day One tackle. Taliese Fuaga (Oregon State), Olu Fashanu (Penn State) and Troy Fautanu (Washington) would all make sense. If the team does look at drafting here, this isn't the draft to go with the prospect who scores the highest on the RAS and is from a school that didn't go up against regular NFL-level competition. It seems pretty straightforward, so go with the one who has the best upside and could fit the Kubiak offense.

We can only hope that Ryan Ramczyk is back on the field in some capacity for 2024, but the reality is his situation won't be getting better. The team has known about the degenerative knee issue, and New Orleans has already had a couple of seasons of doing the pain management program with Ramczyk, making him a familiar face on the Wednesday injury report. He ended up playing in 12 games for the Saints last season, missing just one contest against the Jaguars in Week 7 before things got worse in mid-December. 11 of those games saw Ramczyk play in 90% of the offensive snaps or higher.

We know we won't be seeing Ramczyk any time soon, and Dennis Allen is right that there's still plenty of time. However, when we get into training camp and Ramczyk isn't in the mix, that will be the time to officially be concerned. We'll certainly get plenty of updates from now until camp, but again, the Saints shouldn't wait and hope for good news, it's just time to figure out how to adjust accordingly.