The Giants are masters of figuring out how to get younger on the line of attack.
Getting better is the hard part.
Just when it looked like the offensive line wasn’t going to be a major off-season focus for the first time in a decade, the Giants scrapped right guard Kevin Zeitler for $ 12 million in salary cap savings to target passer Leonard Williams franchise tag . Nate Solder could also be gone if the parties don’t quickly come to an agreement on a restructured contract – an opportunity Zeitler was never offered, a source told The Post.
The Giants will perform for free with a configuration of left tackle Andrew Thomas, left guard Will Hernandez, center Nick Gates, right guard Shane Lemieux and right tackle Matt Peart / Solder. Here are the two very different ways to turn the situation around:
Glass half full
The Super Bowl 60 champion Giants look back to 2018-20 checkers as the foundation for their 2025 championship. All five homegrown linemen then came together – lined up in the first, second, third and sixth rounds, and supplemented with an undesigned gem – and grew to a better sum than individual parts. Just as CEO Dave Gettleman envisioned when he pledged to prioritize line repair in December 2017.
At least that’s the dream. Borrowed from a similar blueprint the Giants used in their last two Super Bowl wins.
The Giants finally have a core capable of fulfilling the football adage that lines take time and patience to build chemistry. All five start-ups (except Solder) are 25 years old or younger and together they only count $ 15.5 million by the 2021 limit, compared to Solder’s pre-restructured cost of $ 16.5 million. Hernandez is entering his free running year, but the other four have been signed for at least two more seasons.
And there is an opportunity to create competition. The salary cap caused by COVID-19 plummeted from an expected $ 210 million to $ 182.5 million, prompting the Giants to pick their best defensive lineman over their best offensive lineman.
Zeitler is an example of a league-wide loss this week. The possibility exists to find two quality veterans for the price of his $ 12 million salary, especially if Gettleman-affiliated Pro Bowl guards Trai Turner and Andrew Norwell hit the market. A good left guard could help Thomas get to the next level after a mostly strong finish.
“As he struggled, especially at the start of the season, he showed me enough growth and improvement during the season to be optimistic about his future,” NFL Network analyst Joe Thomas, a future Hall of Famer, told The Post. . “I believe he still has a shot at being a franchise tackle, but it will take work and continuous improvement.”
Glass half empty
Here’s another way to see the starters: Thomas allowed the second-highest pressure (57) in the NFL, Hernandez lost his runway mid-last season and didn’t play in the finals, Gates was the No. 27-ranked center by Pro Football Focus, Lemieux was the NFL’s lowest pass-blocking guard, Peart has one career start and Solder allowed the third most sacks in the NFL (11) when he last played in 2019.
“Those are more questions than answers,” an NFL scout said of the league’s No. 31 rankings last season. “Thomas was picked first, but clearly finished fourth in the rookie tackles last year.”
If the Giants season’s goal – as it should be – is to come up with a definitive answer to whether Daniel Jones is the franchise quarterback or should be replaced, then that line could implode and create the excuses that the Jets talk about. Weeding through this season in determining Sam Darnold’s future.
You get what you pay for.
While there are an unexpected number of starting caliber linemen available, and the oversupply could push the price of the free agents, the Giants still have to make the right decision to weed through the masses for an upgrade.
Belief could have been misplaced given the recent miscalculations in the attack line – Solder and Patrick Omameh had gone bankrupt in 2018, and neither Hernandez nor Thomas have lived up to their draft status so far – and a record of over-confidence in the years since the Super Bowl . on fringe additions Jon Halapio, Spencer Pulley, Jamon Brown, Brett Jones, Marshall Newhouse, JD Walton and Bobby Hart.
Resources devoted to the line again detract from the ability to meet other urgent needs for a No. 1 receiver, bona fide pass-rusher, and an NFL caliber No. 2 cornerback.