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The New Orleans Saints will reportedly have stability in the middle of their offensive line for the foreseeable future.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the NFC South team agreed to a five-year, $63.8 million contract extension with center Erik McCoy.
McCoy has been with the Saints since they selected him out of Texas A&M with a second-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft.
He appeared in all 16 games in each of his first two seasons and 12 games in 2021. McCoy missed time with a calf injury last season, which was part of a larger concern for a New Orleans squad that set an NFL record by using 58 different players in the starting lineup over the course of the year.
The 25-year-old is now presumably healthy and in the middle of his prime, which this deal guarantees will be spent with the team that drafted him.
Pro Football Focus gave him a solid but unspectacular overall player grade of 63.6 last season, which fell well below the 76.2 he earned as a rookie and his 70.1 mark in his second year.
Perhaps the injury played a role in his drop in play, and it’s not as if he was a major liability along the offensive front. The nature of this contract, which puts McCoy among the top five highest-paid centers on a per-year basis, confirms New Orleans’ trust in him.
The organization no longer has to worry about negotiating with the center as the 2022 season unfolds. That new campaign starts with a divisional showdown against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
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