REPORT: The New Orleans Saints Reveal Devastating Injury News Regarding Their 29-Year-Old All-Pro.

The New Orleans Saints right tackle, Ryan Ramczyk, has dealt with a cartilage defect in his left knee since 2021. The defect caused him to miss seven games in 2021. During the 2022 offseason, he underwent surgery, hoping to clean up the issue.

After playing 16 out of 17 regular season games in 2022, Ramczyk would be limited to 12 games in 2023 and missed the last five because of the lingering knee issue. He underwent surgery last month, and their head coach gave a promising injury update at the combine.

The New Orleans Saints head coach gave a promising injury update at the combine.

Dennis Allen spoke with reporters at the combine and told them Ramczyk was progressing 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 he expects him to be ready for training camp.

Fast forward to today, it’s not looking good for the All-Pro RT.

Ryan Ramczyk has not progressed well as of late, according to Allen and Rapoport.

Allen backtracked and stated that Ramczyk isn’t progressing well as of late.

“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 said. “We got plenty of time. … We’re just going to have to wait and see how that all goes as we go through all the offseason and as we get into the training camp aspect.”

“There’s [a] long time before we kick the ball off,” Allen added. “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 possibility of him not being medically cleared for the 2024 season.

“The #Saints are preparing for the real possibility that OT Ryan Ramczyk is medically not able to play this season, sources say. Coach Dennis Allen alluded to Ramczyk’s knee not responding as they hoped, and it’s unclear when or if it will. A true question mark.”

What happens if Ryan Ramczyk retires? (NOTE: This is a hypothetical)

Since Ramczyk restructured his contract by reducing his $17 million base salary to the veteran minimum of $1.21 million, this allows New Orleans to treat his retirement as a post-June 1st release, meaning the $35,359,969 dead cap hit will spread through 2025. Despite saving $1,209,998 in cap space, the team will incur a dead cap hit of $11,650,323 for 2024 and a dead cap hit of $23,709,646 for 2025, per Spotrac.

Don’t be surprised if New Orleans drafts a tackle.

Given the early struggles of Trevor Penning and the possible vacancy at the right tackle position, don’t be surprised if the team uses their 14th pick on a tackle. This draft class is loaded with talent at the tackle position.