The New York Giants drafted Weston Richburg last May with a second round pick. This was a huge investment in Richburg who has played inconsistently in his 9 starts as the Giants’ center. Richburg was very impressive at Colorado State and has had spurts of strong play with the Giants. Being a second round pick, the Giants will not want to give up on Richburg in the grand scheme of things.
Originally brought in as a center, Richburg has also been playing as a guard on the Giants’ o-line. That’s a good ability to have considering he can cover both positions if need be depending on injuries and quality on depth.
At 6’3″ and 290 pounds, Richburg would be wise to bulk up a little bit. The center has had problems with the bull rush as well as staying on his blocks. Richburg’s biggest flaw is that he reaches for blocks, taking away his balance and subsequently his leg strength.
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Offensive line play is all about keeping the feet moving and getting leverage. When you lunge as a linemen it just makes the defensive tackle’s job easier. Richburg needs to work on quickness of the snap, nose guards consistently get a quicker first step, putting him in a compromising situation.
That is the bad, but there is plenty of good. The problems that Richburg is having are technical problems, something you expect from a rookie. The quickness of interior linemen is a huge step up in the NFL from the Mountain West Conference and it probably is a huge adjustment for the rookie. The good is that Richburg has had done well at times, he is capable of doing it right, now we have to work on consistency.
It takes time for a rookie to become a good professional football player. The Giants should take comfort in the fact that most of his problems are errors that can be corrected with good coaching. It may behoove Richburg to add some weight, but he has shown to be a capable athlete.
The Giants may want to bring in a good veteran to compete with Richburg for the job; but remember he won’t get better on the bench. Richburg shows promise that he can grow into the position as he continues his on the job training. If it’s anything the Giants need help in, is making sure they have anchors on their offensive line.