The New Orleans Saints are the only team since the 1970 merger to trade its starting left offensive tackles in consecutive years, dealing Willie Roaf to Kansas City in 2001 and 2002 starter Kyle Turley to St. Louis this spring. That fact, however, seems to matter little to the people who run the club.

In the view of Saints officials and coaches, it appears, addition sometimes results from subtraction. Roaf had a squeaky knee and Turley was the perennial squeaky wheel. Neither departure moved the Saints' brain trust to tears.

Such a mindset, in a league where the left tackle position has become so essential, might seem remarkable. What is more remarkable, though, is that the Saints are convinced their current offensive line will be even better than the two units that preceded it.

	Fontenot

"We've got a lot of flexibility, versatility now, and people we're comfortable with," said head coach Jim Haslett, after the Saints recently slid the final puzzle piece into place by retaining stalwart starting center Jerry Fontenot with a one-year contract. "We'll be fine."

Outside of a brief verbal spitting match with Turley, when Haslett and general manager Mickey Loomis responded to charges the colorful tackle raised about their football acumen and leadership abilities, the Saints prefer to look ahead, not back.

That is not an altogether bad idea, since New Orleans has five veteran starters in place, appears to possess adequate depth and added two excellent prospects in this year's draft.

By signing former St. Louis and Pittsburgh starter Wayne Gandy to replace Turley at the left tackle spot, and keeping Fontenot for at least one more campaign, the team avoided what otherwise might have been a wholesale reshuffling.

Those maneuvers mean that guards Kendyl Jacox and LeCharles Bentley, one of whom would have been forced to move to center had Fontenot signed elsewhere, can remain at the positions they played so well in 2002. At right tackle, Spencer Folau will be pushed by veteran Victor Riley, who seems to have rededicated himself this offseason and looks hungry to jump-start a career that slumped the last two years.

The early betting line is that Riley wins the position, which would make the underrated Folau, a starter in all 16 games in 2002, the top backup at tackle and guard.

"I think things will sort themselves out," said Gandy, a nine-year veteran with solid, if not spectacular, credentials. "What impressed me (in offseason workouts) is that there are a lot of quality linemen here. Some teams struggle to find five guys who can line up and play. We're going to have some really good players standing on the sideline."

	“	We've got a lot of flexibility, versatility now, and people we're comfortable with. We'll be fine.”
		—Coach Jim Haslett

His defensive background aside, Haslett has made offensive line depth a priority during his tenure as head coach, and the Saints have enjoyed strong numbers the last few years. Notably, only one starter on the Saints line is a home-grown product. Bentley, a mauler at right guard, was chosen in the second round of the 2002 draft. No matter who wins the right tackle job, the other starters are all players imported as veteran free agents.

That, however, won't be the case a few years down the road. New Orleans used a second-round pick to grab tackle Jon Stinchcomb of Georgia and Florida State guard Montrae Holland was chosen in the fourth round. Both figure to be starters within the next couple of years.

For now, the rookies will serve their apprenticeships behind one of the NFL's top units, in terms of both quality and quantity. It is a unit that, given the Saints' arsenal of fleet weaponry, sometimes gets overlooked, but the front office and coaching staff have made conscious efforts to ensure productivity while infusing potential. Not an easy task when one considers that two high-profile left tackles have departed, not of their own volition, but by the team's choice.

"There are teams that couldn't survive that," said Jacox. "But we will."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.