Pro Football Rumors
Trevor Penning‘s career has not brought position stability. The would-be Saints Terron Armstead successor could not stick at left tackle with New Orleans and eventually ended up at two other spots with his initial NFL team. The Saints then traded Penning to the Chargers minutes before the 2025 deadline.
The Bolts acquired Penning as an emergency option after Joe Alt followed Rashawn Slater to season-ending IR. This required the 2022 first-round pick, who had been stationed at left guard in his fourth Saints season, to shift back to his original NFL position. The Bolts gave Penning 47 LT snaps in his post-trade debut but ditched that experiment after one game. Despite Penning’s demotion, Los Angeles circled back to him in free agency.
Attached to a one-year deal worth a fully guaranteed $3.5MM, Penning spent his offseason at guard. While the Chargers brought Mike McDaniel and Cole Strange from Miami and used a second-round pick on Jake Slaughter, the team looks to still have Penning in the mix for a starting job. Slater, Alt, Strange and center Tyler Biadasz are starter locks, according to The Athletic’s Daniel Popper, who adds Penning is set for a training camp LG battle with Slaughter and FA addition Kayode Awosika. Strange is slated to play right guard.
After trying Penning as a right tackle starter in 2024, the Saints moved Taliese Fuaga back to his primary college position (RT) upon drafting Kelvin Banks Jr. ninth overall last year. Penning kicked inside to guard and, after a summer turf toe bout, started six games for the Saints at left guard. The Saints unloaded both Penning and Rashid Shaheed at the deadline, and after the Northern Iowa product could not provide a solid emergency blindside option for the Bolts, he saw action at right guard and as a sixth O-lineman later in the season.
The Chargers did not have the LG position available last season, with Zion Johnson holding down that post as injuries decimated the front elsewhere. Los Angeles had Mekhi Becton on a two-year, $20MM deal to play right guard last season. Both are now gone, with the Browns signing Johnson and the Bolts cutting Becton before a $2.5MM roster bonus was due. Johnson had been a four-year Bolts starter, moving from RG to LG in 2023.
L.A. gave Awosika a $2MM deal but only guaranteed him $300K. While this could point to Penning having the upper hand among the veterans, the team’s second-round Slaughter investment may make both veterans depth options alongside former tackle and guard starter Trey Pipkins, who re-signed on a two-year, $10MM accord ($4.58MM guaranteed).
Awosika logged 259 LG snaps last season, filling in for the injured Christian Mahogany in Detroit. Slaughter’s college starts came exclusively at center; he operated as the Gators’ snapper throughout the 2024 and ’25 seasons after making eight starts there in 2023.
Although center-to-guard conversions (and vice versa) are not uncommon, Slaughter’s college work will create an interesting challenge once pads come on in August. Slaughter’s...
