While the New Orleans Saints are one of the few teams returning a highly-rated offensive line intact with all five starters, things aren’t as stable as they appear on the surface in 2020. The team re-signed injury-prone left guard Andrus Peat to a huge contract with $33 million guaranteed in the first few years, possibly their first misstep of free agency. They also aren’t high on the performance of right guard Larry Warford, whose play declined in 2019 when his conditioning left a bit to be desired. Those frustrations have left some outlets speculating that Warford could be moved on draft day for the right price.
So it’s a good thing the Saints brought back one of their own free agents to back up the interior trio of Peat, Warford, and second-year center Erik McCoy. The official NFL transactions wire reported that the Saints re-signed offensive lineman Cameron Tom, who spent the 2019 season recovering from a shoulder injury suffered late in the summer.
Tom initially signed with the Saints as a center out of Southern Mississippi (To The Top!) back in 2017, developing on the practice squad with the help of NFL-quality coaching. He ended up playing 178 snaps on offense as a backup guard in 2018, appearing in 11 different games (and starting that year’s regular season finale against the Carolina Panthers).
Before he went down with that injury in 2019, Tom had competed for snaps at both center and left guard during training camp. While McCoy claimed the starting job at center early in the summer, Tom outplayed free agent acquisition Nick Easton at that spot, earning the backup job behind McCoy while Easton moved his focus to left guard. Tom’s injury ended up forcing former seventh-round pick Will Clapp into the lineup at center when McCoy missed a series late last season.
We should expect a similar situation in 2020, though Tom would be a candidate to replace Warford should the veteran get traded. While the Saints could roll into training camp with some combination of Tom, Easton, and Clapp competing for the starting job at right guard, it doesn’t feel realistic for the Saints to move Warford without first drafting a prospect who could take over for him.
