NY Giants Football: All-Decade team – Tackle
By Matt Clark
The tackle position has been perhaps the most scrutinized of any position for the NY Giants over the past decade, we look at the best to have manned tackle.
Attempting to determine who the best NY Giants players to play the offensive tackle position in the past decade, was like trying to select the least smelly piece of feces from a toilet. In the end, you are simply left with a filthy, stinking mess. Regardless, it was a task that had to be done.
The NY Giants had ten players start a minimum of six games at tackle in a season. Those players include David Diehl, Kareem McKenzie, Will Beatty, Justin Pugh, Ereck Flowers, Marshall Newhouse, Bobby Hart, Chad Wheeler, Nate Solder and Mike Remmers.
The play of these tackles over the past decade, minus a couple of sporadic good seasons has been nothing short of atrocious and has been one of the major causes for the lack of success that the Giants have endured for the better part of the past decade.
David Diehl and Kareem McKenzie were extremely solid tackles in their prime, but they were at the twilight of their careers at the beginning of the last decade. Will Beatty never fully materialized into the tackle that the Giants hoped for due to injury, while Bobby Hart and Chad Wheeler were late-round draft fliers for the Giants.
Ereck Flowers represents one of the worst draft busts in Giants history, as he failed to ever adequately man the left tackle position like the Giants had hoped he would when they spent the ninth overall pick in the 2015 draft on him. Justin Pugh was another first-round pick that exhibited above-average play but never managed to play up to his first-round draft status.
Meanwhile, Marshall Newhouse and Mike Remmers represent two players that the Giants would sign as free-agents to be their answer at the right tackle position. Despite getting a sizeable three-year contract, Newhouse would start only one season at tackle for the Giants. Remmers, who is a shell of his former self due to injuries sustained over his career, severely underperformed for the NY Giants this season.
Nate Solder, who was made the highest-paid offensive lineman at the time he signed his free-agent contract with the Giants, has been nothing short of a disaster, registering as one of the worst tackles in the league since coming over from the New England Patriots.
Two years after signing a four-year $62 million contract to be the left tackle for the Giants and to anchor the offensive line, Solder’s performance has been so poor that there are reports of moving him to another position or moving on from him altogether, regardless of the amount of dead cap space that the Giants would be forced to endure.
As a result of a decade of neglecting the tackle position, and the offensive line as a whole, the Giants are in a familiar position this offseason of trying to figure out how to solidify the tackle position that allowed rookie quarterback Daniel Jones to get brutalized for 15 of his 38 sacks and to receive countless hits.
Whether through the draft or through free agency, the Giants need to get back to basics and solidify their tackle position. The Giants were at their best prior to the start of this decade when they had stalwarts like Diehl and McKenzie manning the tackle position, with solid offensive linemen like Rich Seubert, Chris Snee, and Shaun O’Hara playing the guard and center positions. Too long has Giants management neglected the offensive line and the results of such negligence are obvious.
With an eye to the future of the tackle position for the NY Giants, we look back at the three best to play the position in the past decade.