Lucas Patrick’s switch to Center after McCoy left (1 Viewer)

[GrandAdmiral]

They said Patrick has more experience in the system and is the reason why he took C.

Could've fooled me. It was not good at all.

 

[St. Widge]

Yesterday made me wonder how much McCoy makes up for how terrible Ruiz is. Watching him all game, he looked like a rookie at best. I expected Patrick to struggle a bit, but was highly disappointed at how terrible Ruiz played.

I don't think Ruiz is great but I think some of it is that the scheme relies on combo blocks and without McCoy the continuity is messed up and the right line calls aren't necessarily being made. There was one play where Ruiz and Udoh both pulled in opposite directions and ran into each other in the middle of the line. That seems more likely to be a messed up line call rather than either of them being that bad. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't imagine there is a play call where you have both Guards pull in opposite directions. But, I do think McCoy and the scheme cover up some of Ruiz's issues.

 

[BreesusSaves]

McCoy calls the protections and audibles to the line's blocking scheme pre-snap. On top of that his blocking was literally the best Center in the league in the two game sample size we have.

That's just not a guy a team can replace midgame.

Not counting the end of the first half kneeldown, 17 of the Saints 72 yards of offense in the first half came from the three plays McCoy was in the game. That's 23.6% of the team's total first half yardage. The Saints had 99 yards of offense going into the fourth quarter. Essentially 17% of the Saints offense through three full quarters came on just three plays with McCoy in the game.

The offense literally hit a wall the moment McCoy left the game. It wouldn't be until the fourth quarter the offense would finally find some life, but then the defense would pull an all time classic Saints move.

 

[B4YOU]

I was surprised we didn't move Ruiz to center.

This is what I said during the game. Leave the left side alone, move Ruiz to center, and roll protection to the right side. Ruiz played terrible all game.

 

[longtime lurker]

The coaches have a week to figure this out as best they can. I hope there are some terrific OLs in the next draft.

2025 NFL Draft: Offensive tackle superlatives

Trevor Sikkema breaks down the offensive tackle superlatives for the 2025 NFL Draft class.

www.pff.com

https://www.draftnation.com/articles/2025-nfl-draft-top-10-guards

There are a few…hopefully the stars align again and we can continue to rebuild that line. Now here’s to finding that perfect player who can play in Kubiak’s system.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

Ruiz was drafted to play center. The original plan was to move McCoy to guard.

 

[StudioSaint]

Ruiz was drafted to play center. The original plan was to move McCoy to guard.

According to what public statement from someone within the Saints' organization?

 

[MikeyF]

James Hurst on why Erik McCoy is almost impossible to replace mid-game

Losing Erik McCoy early against the Eagles was almost a worst-case scenario. Former Saints offensive lineman James Hurst explains why:

saintswire.usatoday.com

 

[la. champ1]

He's playing out of position, not to mention your going against 2 elite DTs. You had OL running into each other. Losing McCoy was a huge blow to us. Losing your center throws the whole team out of whack.

Corrections: Move Ruiz to center, move Patrick back to LG, and move Nick Saldiveri to RG. Done.

This ^^^^^^ he’s a good guard but he’s way out of position. Doesn’t look like we had much of a contingency plan for this. There are two onlineman we absolutely could not lose and they are McCoy and Fuaga. McCoy being number one as the center of the o line. That’s why that game went the way it did and Carr looked the way she looked. Pressure up the middle and no run game. Hope Mccoy can play soon and injury not too bad.

 

[sammymvpknight]

Ruiz was drafted to play center. The original plan was to move McCoy to guard.

Before Ruiz was beat like a drum. I personally wouldn’t love the idea of movie Ruiz away from Penning. Penning needs as much continuity as possible.

 

[Saintslfc13]

According to what public statement from someone within the Saints' organization?

Sean Payton said that Larry (the guard at the time) would have to compete. That player was cut/released later that offseason. I could be wrong but I believe Payton said the plan was to move McCoy to guard at first and then McCoy was too good at center to justify the move whilst Ruiz was good enough at guard (Keep in mind we still had Drew Brees making all the calls and adjustments), so they kept McCoy at center and went with Ruiz on his right.

 

[Taker597]

I don't think you can start Lucas at center against Grady and David attacking the A and B gaps on the L side.

I don't think Ruiz and his back up will be a better solution at C and RG

 

[TomThomster7]

They said groin injury. Not good. Simple grade 1-2 would possibly take 1-3 months to heal according to anything I see online. Hoping for some luck with him.

1 to 3 MONTHS !?!?
Bye-bye season.

 

[greg8710]

I'm pretty sure that Patrick has played a lot of Center in his career and while Ruiz played Center in college, I don't think he's taken many snaps, if any at Center in practices with the Saints. I don't recall hearing him playing Center at any point in camp this year which would make it hard to move him to Center in a week.

Patrick is the backup Center so I wouldn't be surprised to see them stick with the same guys this week or just put Landon Young or Saldiveri at LG. Someone mentioned that Hergel took some snaps at Center during camp so maybe they could put Hergel at Center while keeping Patrick at LG and Ruiz at RG to reduce the number of moving parts.

I remember him taking center at least in one game. He was calling out everything.
Dunno if if it was right or not

 

[limeyjohn]

The good news is l have seen no signs of us scrambling to sign a free agent center, and they are a couple available, not sure where the information is coming from about the length of time someone with a groin strain takes to heal but from what l am reading it could be as little as one to two weeks