Help may be on the way after the New Orleans Saints offensive line took a big hit. The Saints hosted several free agents for a group workout on Tuesday, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, and several of them have local connections. Cornelius Lucas (Edna Karr in New Orleans) and Cody Ford (Pineville, La.) both played high school football in Louisiana.
Lucas, 35, spent about a week with the Saints back in 2018 but found his footing as a regular starter with the Washington Commanders from 2020 to 2024. He's a 12-year pro with experience at both tackle spots, though he predominately lines up on the right side (2,878 career snaps) according to Pro Football Focus charting. He played college football at Kansas State and was briefly teammates with Kellen Moore
on the Detroit Lions back in the day.
Ford, 29, was a second-round pick by the Buffalo Bills back in 2019 (out of Oklahoma) and has experience at four different offensive line spots. He was most recently a backup right tackle with the Cincinnati Bengals, though he did log 400-plus snaps at left tackle in 2024. He has also started games at both left and right guard. He also served as grand marshal of the Alexandria Mardi Gras parade earlier this year.
Neither of these guys should be expected to start, but they could give the Saints more depth behind Asim Richards, a backup filling in for injured left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. Right now the only other tackles on the depth chart are rookie waiver claim Mason Murphy, backing up Taliese Fuaga on the right side; and practice squad reserves Alan Herron, Alex Wollschlaeger, and Easton Kilty. We'll see if any other free agents were part of this workout and whether the Saints chose to sign one or more of them.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints try out free agent offensive linemen after Kelvin Banks injury
