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One player the New York Giants are hoping will click this summer is second-year tackle Matt Peart, the 6-foot-7, 318 pounder they selected in the second round last year out of UConn.
Peart has been lining up at right tackle after playing in 11 games (starting one) last season as a rookie. Head coach Joe Judge was asked on Tuesday what the team wants to see from Peart this camp.
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“Kind of sound a little like a broken record, I just want to see consistent improvement from him,” said Judge. “What we saw last year was competitiveness, very coachable player and daily improvement. Obviously, he showed up. The first action he got last year was versus Washington in that first game we had. It was kind of on short notice. He jumped on in there, we threw him in there on the edge and he held up pretty well for us. And as we went forward, he gave us confidence to mix him through and we had a three-tackle rotation, and he kept getting better week by week.
“He had a setback with injury at the end of last year that kind of took a little playing time away from him because he couldn’t go out there and give 100 percent, but we had confidence in him every game last year to put him out there when he was healthy. And look, right now between all of our tackles, we’re looking for all of these guys to keep on improving and as many players as we have that we’re able to get in the game, we’re going to play them.”
Physicality goes 🆙 pic.twitter.com/ga2rQQgQnW
— New York Giants (@Giants) August 3, 2021
Peart was in front of the Giants beat pool after the team’s first padded practice of the summer, which included a full-scale melee that drew the ire of Judge. Last year, he missed some time due to COVID-19 and this year, he is back and healthy and told reporters he was just pleased to ‘be with my brothers, to be with the family again.’
The COVID experience robbed Peart of some much-needed playing time late in the season. He’s starting this camp with a fresh attitude.
“That’s one thing with football, it’s just playing through adversity. That was my adversity going through the end of last season,” Peart said. “I’m just so fortunate to have a great group of guys around me that really rallied around me when times got rough for me. So, I’m keeping it with stride. I just take everything day-by-day. I got out here and took everything day-by-day and tried not to dwell on all that adversity because, like I said, it comes with football. So, I’m just really fortunate that I have a group of guys that were able help me.”
Peart is also sizably bigger and stronger this summer. The Giants are playing on him competing for the right tackle position. He’s off to a good start.
“Coming into the second year, the attention to detail is that much more. I knew what I had to do coming into the offseason to get bigger, faster, stronger, so I really took the onus to really work on my craft and to work on those abilities, and work on the tangible things that I had,” Peart said. “Just to make sure that I come into year two not having the same little lapses here and there that I did last season. So right now, it’s just come out here and compete every single day, and like I said, grow with my guys.”
Peart will have to fend off veteran Nate Solder and others in camp for the starting role but insiders believe the Giants are set to give him more than an ample opportunity to win the job out of camp.
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