Ex-Pro Bowl OT Terron Armstead Talks Tua, Rams, Giants, Saints & More w/ Rich

Terron Armstead stood on the sideline at the Saints and Rams joint practice and came away with the same conclusion he brought to the show the last time. "Them Rams look good, dog. They are talented. Very talented."

Matt Stafford completed something like 20 passes in a row at one point. The defense flew around. New Orleans made plays and moved the ball, and the Rams answered every time. Armstead watched a team that looked sure of itself, with Davante Adams in the mix, and the part that stuck with him is that Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald were not out there. He has not backed off his belief that this team can run the table.

On Donald specifically, the show ran its recurring Is he back yet? bit, and Armstead's answer was that it is coming. Why it has not happened yet comes down to one word. "Process," he said. Mental or physical, "he's earned the right to go through the process," and the Rams are not going to rush a player who can dictate his own every move.

The more interesting question is what happens inside an opposing offensive line room once Donald and Garrett are on the field together. Armstead's answer was blunt about the math. The run game becomes vital, the defense has to keep the score close, and you have to live in a world of third and two, third and three. In the meeting room, the mindset has to be flat. "We can't put them on no type of pedestal. They don't have a cape under their jersey, nothing. These are great players, but that's that. And I am too."

Not everyone gets to play it that way. Some lines simply will not have the talent to block those two, which turns the game plan into a committee project with tight ends, running backs and a quarterback getting the ball out fast. Asked to circle the lines that can handle it straight up, Armstead named Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Kansas City, Dallas and Seattle, and pointed at Chicago, where Darnell Wright and Joe Thuney can meet that matchup by themselves.

Atlanta got a harder look, and a reluctant one. "I'm not a Falcons guy. Very painful for me to speak well on them folks," Armstead said, before doing exactly that. He believes Tua Tagovailoa can still play at a high level, and he read the dropped snap and the pressing as a man carrying the way things ended in Miami, which was not by his standard. "He does not feel okay with it, and he just desperately wants to get that bad taste out of his mouth." The prescription is simple. Take a deep breath, find the eligibles, use the weapons. "Watch this next one, Rich."

The Giants earned a real endorsement. Rich played a Brian Burns soundbite about how hard John Harbaugh has run camp and how that work carried the team through the heat in a joint practice against Miami. Armstead heard a veteran saying he is uncomfortable daily and getting used to it. "It doesn't guarantee you anything, but the process is important," he said, citing Saints camps that made his teams hard to play because no conditions ever felt like too much. His verdict came fast. "I'm buying Giant stock. I'm not cashing out on them."

Put one in, take one out went easier in the NFC. Panthers out, Saints in as the division winner. Armstead expects three NFC North teams to make it, which squeezes the South down to one, and he still thinks Carolina will be good.

The AFC took longer, because as Armstead put it, that conference is top heavy rather than crowded. He pulled the Jaguars out despite liking their defensive line, their receivers and Trevor Lawrence, largely because putting Houston in as the South winner freed up a wild card slot. In their place, the Chiefs. What does he like beyond the obvious? "Andy and Patrick," he said, plus a group that hates being left out of the tournament.