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.
3. Kareem McKenzie
Kareem McKenzie served as an anchor at left tackle for the NY Giants for six seasons. He would begin the last decade at the position, starting all 16 games for the team in both 2010 and 2011. However, the results of the two seasons would be polar opposites, as he would finish 2010 as PFF’s third-best tackle while finishing dead last as the 72nd ranked tackle in 2011.
McKenzie, the 2001 third-round draft pick of the New York Jets, would play from 2001-2004 with the Jets before signing a free-agent contract in 2005 to come to the Giants. He would man right tackle for the Giants from 2005-2011. At 6’6″ and 328-pounds, he was a giant of a man at the position.
McKenzie would start at least 12 games every year of his tenure with the Giants. He was clearly on his last legs by 2011. Despite this fact, he was able to start every game in the regular season, as well as all four playoff games during the Giants Super Bowl run.
Following the 2011 Super Bowl championship run, New York would opt to not extend McKenzie following his dismal performance the prior season. He would not be signed by any team after that and would retire from the league in 2012.
McKenzie solidified the right tackle during his time with the Giants, protecting Eli Manning with an effectiveness that has been lacking in the majority of seasons for the team since his retirement. As a result of his solid performance, McKenzie finds himself on the top three tackles of the last decade for the Giants.
2. David Diehl
David Diehl was an excellent tackle during his prime. Unfortunately, at the start of this decade, he was reaching the end of his playing career and he would only start at tackle in 2010 and 2012 for the NY Giants.
Diehl was an absolute steal by Ernie Accorsi in the fifth round of the 2003 draft. The 6’5″, 304-pound lineman out of the University of Illinois would go on to have an extremely accomplished career with the Giants that would include being a two-time Super Bowl champion, a Pro Bowler in 2009 and named a second-team All-Pro in 2008.
He would start every game of his NFL career from his 2003 rookie season through 2010 when he was forced to miss time due to a torn hamstring and partially dislocated his hip. Diehl would serve as an example of durability and versatility for the Giants for the first seven years of his career.
During his career, he would never start less than nine games in a season, starting all 16 games in eight of his 11 seasons. As a result, when Diehl retired from the Giants, he was tied for 12th all-time in games played in Giants franchise history.
In all, Diehl would start 96 games at tackle and 69 games at guard, proving to be a valuable asset to head coach Tom Coughlin and the Giants. He would move to the right tackle position following the release of Rich Seubert and Shaun O’Hara and would play admirably.
He would play left tackle in 2010 and 2011 and right tackle in 2012. He would start 12 games in 2010, 16 games in 2011 and nine games in 2012. He would move to right guard in 2013 before suffering a thumb injury that would force him to retire in 2014.
David Diehl is undoubtedly one of the best players to play on the Giants offensive line in franchise history. His versatility and durability at multiple positions made him an extremely valuable asset. If it weren’t for the fact that Diehl was at the back end of his career, where he was dealing with multiple injuries, he would likely be higher on this list.
1. Will Beatty
Honestly, any of the top three guys on this list could have been put in any order, as none of them were so outstanding at the tackle position during the past decade that they warranted the top position. Beatty received the top position on this list simply due to the fact that he actually manned the position for more than a year or two. In fact, only he and Ereck Flowers are the only two to start five or more games at the tackle position for more than two seasons for the NY Giants last decade.
Beatty, the second-round pick of the Giants out of UConn in 2009, managed to start ten or more games at tackle from 2011-2014. However, his tenure with the Giants would be marred with significant injuries.
In 2010, Beatty was expected to be the starting left tackle for New York, however, he began the season as an extra tight end and special teams contributor. In the first game of the season, Beatty would injure his foot and would be sidelined for eight weeks.
He would return from injury in 2011 and win the starting left tackle position. Beatty would start ten games at left tackle for the Giants playing well at the position for those starts. However, he would be hit in the eye against the Philadelphia Eagles and would suffer a detached retina that would require surgery and cause him to miss the remainder of the season.
Beatty would begin 2012 as a backup tackle and an extra tight end. However, David Diehl would suffer an injury in the second game of the season, forcing Beatty to become the starting left tackle. PFF would grade Beatty as the second-best left tackle in the NFC and fifth-best overall for 2012. As a result of his solid performance, he would sign a 5-year $38.75 million contract extension with the NY Giants in the offseason.
In 2013, Beatty would start every game of the season, performing solidly throughout the year for the Giants. However, he would suffer a broken leg during the final game of the season against the Washington Redskins.
Despite concerns that the broken leg would cause him to miss time, Beatty would not require any additional time to recover and would start all 16 games at left tackle in 2014. He would spend half of the year as PFF’s top-graded left tackle but would suffer a bit of a drop off as the year progressed, finishing the year as PFF’s 11th best-left tackle.
Beatty was slated to begin 2015 as the starting left tackle for the Giants, with 2015 first-round draft pick Ereck Flowers starting at right tackle. Flowers was seen as a great run blocking tackle who needed a lot of work at pass blocking, so he would be best served to learn at the right tackle position. The Giants felt like they had a solid tandem at both tackles that would solidify their line for years to come.
However, prior to the start of the 2015 season, Beatty would suffer a torn pectoral muscle and would miss the entire 2015 season. As a result, Flowers was forced to move immediately to left tackle with Justin Pugh moving to right tackle. The deficiencies of Flowers in pass protection would be immediately exposed and he would not ever be able to develop them enough to be a viable option at tackle for the Giants.
Beatty would suffer a torn rotator cuff while rehabbing his torn pectoral and would be released by the NY Giants before the 2016 season. In many ways, the injuries to Beatty derailed any chances the Giants had of having a cohesive offensive line.
Had he been able to remain healthy and maintain his superb play at left tackle, Flowers may have been able to develop at right tackle with Justin Pugh and John Jerry manning the guard positions and Weston Richburg at center, forming a formidable line. Instead, Flowers was unable to develop and the Giants were forced to piecemeal the line together, with disastrous results.
While Beatty’s career was significantly hindered by injury, he still remains the best player to man the tackle position for the New York Giants in the past decade. This serves more as an indictment on the abilities of Jerry Reese and Dave Gettleman to find adequate solutions at tackle than it does a ringing endorsement of Beatty’s play.