UNI First Round Pick Trevor Penning Thrown Out of Saints Practice

Former Northern Iowa starting left tackle turned first-round pick and New Orleans Saints offensive lineman, Trevor Penning isn't the nicest guy on the football field.

Most of the time, it's good for the big guys up front to not be.

Penning became known by NFL fans and scouts everywhere during the draft process as a ferocious, play-to-the-whistle blocker, as you can see in his highlights from the Reese's Senior Bowl process:

After bringing his knock-down, drag-out mentality to camp the Clear Lake, Iowa native has been involved in several on-field scuffles with teammates on the defensive side of the ball. As a result, he was kicked out of practice today, August 3.

Here are some clips:

Head coach of the Saints, Dennis Allen weighed in on the issue:

To be frank, there are several reasons this doesn't concern me, it shouldn't concern you, and any Saints fan reading this can (and should) take a chill pill if they think this is really something to worry about.

The first being that these guys are the best of the best and egos get in the way of just playing football all the time -- to me, these start off as Penning doing his job, maybe pushing it a little too far, and then the man on defense not liking the fact that he was handled by a rookie. Thus, pushing back and escalating the issue beyond what is needed.

So, it's not just on the former First-Team All-MVFC linemen.

Secondly, it's OTAs. There's more than a month until New Orleans plays their first meaningful game in 2022. Penning may feel like he has to show off a bit more of his grittiness because this is one part of the year where you're allowed to rough up you're teammates a bit. Chances are he wants to show he's willing to do whatever it takes for the skill position guys behind him to be protected.

Third, similar to the last one -- scuffles happen ALL THE TIME in training camp. You can find one in NFL articles just about every day during camp time.

Lastly, this is what the Saints signed up for. They wanted a big, nasty guy with a reputation out there defending QB Jameis Winston after a torn ACL last season. They needed a guy who can step in to replace Terron Armseated at the left tackle position and impose his will on opposing defensive linemen.

I mean, look at this quote from Allen after Penning was drafted in April:

R.E.L.A.X.

And, to boot, there's plenty of film out there of the former Panther solely doing his job, too.

And Penning added this quote a few days ago: