USAT: Saints Wire audio clip

USAT: Saints Wire

Feb 3, 2022

- - - - #Saints OT Ryan Ramczyk recently underwent offseason knee surgery aimed at cleaning it out and alleviating the issues he battled all season, source said. The procedure was described as minor. - — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 2, 2022 - - - The offseason is often a time for clean-up surgeries, and New Orleans Saints right tackle Ryan Ramczyk became the latest player to go under the knife. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday that Ramczyk underwent a knee procedure that was “described as minor,” after knee issues cost him a lot of time during the 2021 season. The 653 snaps on offense he saw this yera were the lowest of his career; his previous personal-low was 997 in 2018, which led the team, and he’s otherwise gone over 1,000 snaps played in every other season. - Initially injured in Week 10’s road loss to the Tennessee Titans, Ramczyk was sidelined all the way through Week 17 until he made his return in the regular season finale with Atlanta. The Saints struggled to replace him during that stretch, fielding a combination of James Hurst (190 snaps at right tackle), Jordan Mills (also 190, weirdly), Caleb Benenoch (49), and Kyle Murphy (3). Ramczyk’s injury unluckily coincided with Terron Armstead’s own health issues, forcing the Saints to shuffle a lot of players around. - Hopefully Ramczyk enjoys better health in 2022. He’s under contract through 2026 and carries a 2023 salary cap hit north of $23 million, a huge chunk of which is readymade for a restructure to bring the Saints some badly-needed cap relief. - By restructuring his $8.7 million roster bonus and $10.5 million salary into a new signing bonus, New Orleans can reduce that cap hit by as much as $14.5 million. But doing so would raise his future cap hits by $3.6 million in each year, unless the Saints tack on some void years at the end of his contract. If the Saints are confident he’ll return to All-Pro form after an uncharacteristically volatile 2021 campaign, this should be the move. - It’s also worth noting that the Saints wrote a performance bonus into Ramczyk’s contract which raises his base salary by $1 million in subsequent seasons should he be named a first or second team All-Pro by the Associated Press specifically at left tackle, replacing Terron Armstead. We’ll see how it all shakes out in the months and years ahead. - - List - - Ranking the top Saints team needs in 2022 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Saints Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Saints Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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