Ryan Ramczyk, the New Orleans Saints’ right lineman, has been dealing with a cartilage problem in his left knee since 2021. Due to the issue, he missed seven games in 2021. He had surgery during the offseason of 2022 in the hopes of resolving the issue.
Ramczyk would be limited to 12 regular season games in 2023, missing the last five due to a nagging knee injury. He had surgery last month, and their head coach provided an encouraging injury update during the combine.
The New Orleans Saints’ head coach provided a promising injury update at the combine.
Dennis Allen spoke with reporters at the combine and said Ramczyk was doing well.
“He’s got a knee that he and we are going to have to manage, but we feel much better about where he’s at today than where he was a month, month and a half ago.”
Allen also told reporters that he expects him to be ready for training camp.
Fast forward to now, and the All-Pro RT is not looking so well.
According to Allen and Rapoport, Ryan Ramczyk has not been making much progress recently.
Allen then retracted his statement, claiming that Ramczyk had not been making good progress.
“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,” Allen was quoted as saying. We have plenty of time. We’ll just have to wait and watch how things progress over the offseason and into training camp.”
“There’s [a] long time before we kick the ball off,” he said. “I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions right now, but we’ll see how it goes over the next three, four, five, six months — whatever it is — before we get to the season.”
Ian Rapoport tweeted on X that New Orleans is preparing for the potential that he would not be medically cleared for the 2024 season.
“The #Saints are prepared for the serious potential that OT Ryan Ramczyk will be medically unable to play this season, according to sources. Coach Dennis Allen alluded to Ramczyk’s knee not reacting as expected, and it is unknown when or if it will. “A true question mark.”
What would happen if Ryan Ramczyk retired? (NOTE: This is a hypothesis.)
Ramczyk’s contract was adjusted to reduce his $17 million base salary to the veteran minimum of $1.21 million, allowing New Orleans to treat his retirement as a post-June 1st release, resulting in a $35,359,969 dead cap hit that will last until 2025. Despite saving $1,209,998 in cap space, the team will face a dead cap hit of $11,650,323 in 2024 and $23,709,646 in 2025, according to Spotrac.
Don’t be surprised if the Saints draft a tackle.
Given Trevor Penning’s early problems and a potential vacancy at the right tackle position, don’t be surprised if the team uses their 14th pick on a tackle. This draft class is stacked with talent at the tackle position.
Will Ryan Ramczyk return next season, and will they select a tackle in the first round?
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