Pro Football Focus' Mason Cameron ranked the starting NFL centers from best to worst. New Orleans Saints center, Erik McCoy, finished as the fourth best at his position. As PFF continues with their rankings, McCoy will undoubtedly be the Saint who finishes the highest among his peers.
Above McCoy, PFF ranked Pittsburgh's Zach Fraizer (3rd), Baltimore's Tyler Linerbaum (2nd), and Kansas City's Creed Humphrey (1st).
This comes after Erik McCoy had an early-season groin injury, which caused him to miss nine games of the 2024 season and only play 293 snaps. However, PFF says the team captain was on track for a career year, giving his season a grade of 94.4, - the highest of all centers.
Erik McCoy's importance became obvious in his absence
However, who can say that 2024 wasn't the most important year of his career? In McCoy's absence, not only was the offensive line was different, but the offense as a whole was just off. He proved his value to the team with how much they struggled.
And it appears that the weirdness is obvious even when looking at the stats.
McCoy suffered the injury at the beginning of the week three game against the Eagles. The offensive stats in that game were only half of those in the first two games of the season. The Saints had 130 passing yards and 89 rushing yards, compared to 242 passing yards and 190 rushing yards the week before. The Saints' performance declined as McCoy's absence continued to affect the team throughout the season.
Luckily for the Saints, the center has been healthy throughout the offseason and has been present throughout all of the offseason training activities. The entire team has seemed to be glad he's back.
When asked about the significance of a healthy Erik McCoy, right tackle Tailese Fuaga's eyes lit up.
"I told him, I need him out there because he's a big piece of that o-line." Fuaga said during OTAs. "He's really like almost the heart and soul of that whole o-line and especially the offense."
