Saints' big offseason thing: Fix the trenches, especially the offensive line
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz looks at the one big thing for New Orleans' offseason - upgrading both the offensive and defensive lines and keeping Derek Carr upright in a winnable NFC South.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: It's time to take a look at one big thing facing the New Orleans Saints this offseason. Let's be clear. The Saints can't go marching in anywhere until they fix their offensive line. In fact, if you want to make the argument that great teams are built in the trenches on the offensive and defensive line, then Saints fans don't have much room for happiness.
So how do you fix it? Well, the lucky thing here is that if you start to look at what's available, there are some quality players on the offensive and defensive line available in free agency. And importantly, this is a very deep draft at offensive line.
Where the Saints are picking, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them address some of their offensive line needs because, let's be real, when Derek Carr is your quarterback, you need to keep him clean. Most quarterbacks struggle when they have pressure up the middle. We all know that. That's particularly true for Carr. It took him a minute to get comfortable. You have got to find a way to improve your offensive line, your defensive line, your red zone offense. These are all things that the Saints are going to have to address.
Let's be real. The NFC South is not a very good division. And the Saints have got to be looking at this saying, hey, our window is right now because this division should be winnable every single year, even with Derek Carr not being great. He just has to be very good. You should be able to win the division. The amount of pressure that's on Dennis Allen, Derek Carr, and everybody else in New Orleans I think is absolutely wild. And they will only get better if they answer the question of how they fix their lines.