Free agent O-lineman Patrick Omameh will try out for the Saints today, per Mike Triplett of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Omameh would provide experienced depth at either guard or tackle for the NFC South favorites.
Omameh has done well for himself considering he entered the league as a UDFA back in 2013, though he has bounced around quite a bit. He started all 16 games for the Buccaneers in 2014, and he played 14 games (nine starts) for the Bears in 2015. He suited up for the Jaguars over the following two seasons before inking a three-year, $15MM contract with the Giants last March.
At the time, that deal felt like an overpay and an overreaction to the fact that Big Blue missed out on one of their top free agent targets, Andrew Norwell. And indeed, Omameh didn’t even last a full season with the Giants, who benched him in October and cut him in November after an underwhelming showing.
The Michigan product rejoined the Jaguars — who, coincidentally, were the winners of the Norwell sweepstakes — and proceeded to start the final five games of the season for them. However, he did not do much to earn significant interest on the open market this year, and his visit to New Orleans marks the first reported interest in him in 2019.
Still, he has started 56 games over his career, and it makes sense that New Orleans would want to kick the tires on such a player at this point in the year.