Saints’ Terron Armstead: ‘We forgot what losing feels like and we want to keep forgetting’

Terron Armstead has been through the bad times, when the New Orleans Saints struggled through three consecutive 7-9 seasons from 2014 to 2016 after going 11-5 and reaching the Super Bowl in his rookie year.

Now that the offensive tackle and his teammates are thriving, having won seven games in a row after a 0-2 start, it’s as if those bad times never existed.

‘We just go in the building, we’re hanging out, we’re just having a good time’

How much are they enjoying their success? Coach Sean McDermott gave his club a “Victory Monday” off after Sunday’s 47-10 pounding of the Buffalo Bills, yet Armstead was one of 40 players who showed up. Tuesday was a normal day off, yet 35-plus players were on hand.

“We just go in the building, we’re hanging out, we’re just having a good time,” Armstead said. “We don’t want to have that feeling go away, trying to hold onto that. We forgot what losing feels like and we want to keep forgetting what losing feels like.

‘It’s a feel we haven’t had in New Orleans in quite some time’

“It’s different, man. It’s a feel we haven’t had in New Orleans in quite some time. I think we’re pretty dangerous in all aspects of the game.”

Armstead shares the feeling that multiple Saints players have expressed that they could sense the type of year that was coming in the offseason, even when most prognosticators were predicting the team would struggle.

‘We felt like we got better, personnel-wise (in the offseason)’

“We were excited back in the offseason,” he said. “We felt like we got better, personnel-wise. We felt like we got better on defense. You bring in a guy like (cornerback) Marshon Lattimore. I mean, he’s a rookie, of course, and you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get. But you can see, like everyone can see, he’s one of a kind and will be for a very long time.

“You bring in game-changing personnel like that, you have no choice but to get better.”