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The New York Giants have issues along their offensive line. No matter how many puppy dogs are introduced and rainbows are painted, there’s no way around that reality.
Following the retirements of Joe Looney and Zach Fulton, coupled with injuries to Kyle Murphy (out for season), Nate Solder, Shane Lemieux and Jonotthan Harrison, the overall lack of depth has become apparent. And it’s jarring.
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In a moment of desperation last week, assistant offensive line coach Ben Wilkerson was forced to step in and take second-team reps at guard. And while the have Giants vowed to add linemen prior to their trip to Cleveland, the clock continues to tick without any new signings.
In the face of all that, Giants brass remains defiant. And in unison on Tuesday, they expressed their confidence in not only the starting five, but their very limited depth.
“I have confidence in that group. Did we do enough? I think time will tell. I like those guys,” co-owner John Mara told reporters. “I think we’re always looking to upgrade where we can. Do we have enough depth there? I’m not sure about that yet, but I think we’ll get a better indication of that over the next couple of weeks when we’re practicing against some pretty good teams.
“I think all five of the starters, plus a couple of the backups are good quality players. I know our coaching staff feels good about them. Obviously, there’s going to be skepticism about them until they do it on the field and they start producing some complete games and some wins. I do like the people that we have up there, and I do have confidence in them.”
Mara persisted.
“I think they have the potential to be a very good offensive line, but again, until they do it out on the field and we start producing some good offensive performances, there’s going to be that skepticism and I understand it,” Mara said, adding that any O-line issues are the result of poor drafting in the past.
General manager Dave Gettleman, who is responsible for building the offensive line, echoed Mara’s sentiments.
“Four of the five starters were out there Saturday night and the offensive line really played pretty well,” Gettleman said. “Obviously, we didn’t expect [Looney and Fulton] to retire, but they had their reasons and it’s their lives. I wish them the best and respect the decisions they made. They made tough decisions. Training camp is not over, the roster building season never ends. We’ll get to where we need to get to.
“I think that we believe in Will, we believe in (OL) Shane Lemieux.”
But even Mara and Gettleman know they need reinforcements. And once again, the Giants vowed to look.
“My gut tells me that there’ll be more movement of those types of players that you feel good about after the second preseason game and maybe even after the cut because you’ve got to remember you now have a full week. Going to cut to the 53, Coach (Joe Judge) is left a couple of practices, players have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, so I think you could see some horse trading going on during that period of time,” Gettleman said.
Judge, however, has softened his tone a bit on potential additions. He’s gone from “we will” to “we’ll see.”
“We’ll see. We’re always talking through the entire roster,” Judge said. “We’re always looking at personnel at all times. That’s our job, to know who’s available based on what we need and what the team needs for competition. In terms of will we bring somebody in, I won’t rule that out. I’m not saying that’s an absolute or that we have to do it, but we’ll see where the person on the street is available and we’ll see where we are as a team.”
There were no workouts, tryouts or visits listed for the Giants on Tuesday which means any potential addition would still have to go through COVID-19 protocols. As a result, unless they’ve already had someone in the building who has gone through all of that, there are unlikely to be any O-line additions prior to departing for Cleveland.
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