The giants are masters at learning how to get younger on the offensive line.
Getting better is the hard part.
Even though it looked like the offensive line wouldn’t be a major focus in the offseason for the first time in a decade, the Giants cut right-back Kevin Zeitler for a $ 12 million salary cap savings to target the franchise tag passenger. . Nate Solder could also disappear if the parties do not quickly reach a restructured contract – an opportunity that was never presented to Zeitler, a source told The Post.
The Giants will enter the free agency with a left attack setup Andrew Thomas, left guard Will Hernandez, center Nick Gates, right guard Shane Lemieux and right attack Matt Peart / Solder. Here are two very different ways to turn the situation around:
Half full glass
The Super Bowl 60 champions, the Giants, are looking back at the 2018-2020 projects as the basis for their 2025 championship. All five home liners gathered then – drafted in the first, second, third and sixth round, and finished with a raw jewelry – and became a better amount than the individual parts. Just as CEO Dave Gettleman imagined when he promised to give priority to fixing the line in December 2017.
This is the dream, anyway. Borrowed from a similar plan used by the Giants in the last two Super Bowl victories.
The giants finally have a core capable of fulfilling the football saying that lines need time and patience to build chemistry. All five incumbents (excluding Solder) are 25 years of age or younger, and the handsets will only cost $ 15.5 million over the 2021 ceiling, compared to Solder’s pre-restructured fee of 16.5 million. of dollars. Hernandez enters his walking year, but the other four are signed for at least two more seasons.
And there is the opportunity to compete. The salary cap caused by COVID-19 dropped from a projected $ 210 million to $ 182.5 million, prompting the Giants to choose their best defensive line against the best offensive.
Zeitler is an example of league-level bleeding this week. There’s an opportunity to find two quality veterans at his $ 12 million salary, especially if Gettleman-connected Pro Bowl goalkeepers Trai Turner and Andrew Norwell hit the market. A quality left-back could help Thomas reach the next level after a largely strong finish.
“While fighting, 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, the future Hall of Famer, told The Post. . “I think it still has a chance to be a franchise, but it will need work and continuous improvement.”
Half empty glass
Here’s another way to see the rookies: Thomas allowed the most pressure (57) in the NFL, Hernandez lost his job in the middle of last season and didn’t play in the finals, Gates was center 27th by Pro Football Focus, Lemieux was the lowest NFL goalie blocking the pass, Peart has a career start, and Solder allowed the third-highest sack in the NFL (11) when he last played in 2019.
“That means more questions than answers,” said an NFL researcher about the 31st-ranked line in the league last season. “Thomas was chosen first, but he clearly played fourth among the rookie teams last year.”
If the goal of the Giants season – as it should be – is to come up with a definitive answer if Daniel Jones is the franchise’s defender or needs to be replaced, that line is able to implode and create the excuses the Jets leave raining this season when they determines the future of Sam Darnold.
You get what you pay for.
While there are an unexpected number of initial caliber liners, and overloading could reduce the price of the free agent, the Giants still need to make the right mass elimination decision for an upgrade.
Faith could be replaced, given recent offensive miscalculations – Solder and Patrick Omameh were busts of free agents in 2018 and neither Hernandez nor Thomas have lived up to their project status so far – and a history of over-reliance in the post-Super Bowl years on marginal additions Jon Halapio, Spencer Pulley, Jamon Brown, Brett Jones, Marshall Newhouse, JD Walton and Bobby Hart.
The resources allocated to the line again decrease the capacity to respond to other urgent needs for a receiver no. 1, a bona fide rusher and a corner defender no. 2 NFL.