NY Giants must come away with a center during 2020 NFL draft

The NY Giants have a gaping hole in the middle of their offensive line at the center position. As such, it’s imperative that the team comes away with a capable center in the 2020 NFL draft.

The NY Giants haven’t had a truly productive offensive line unit in years. You can make the case that since the 2011 Super Bowl win, Big Blue’s offensive line has cumulatively been the worst – or one of the handful of worst – units in the entire NFL.

A major reason for that has been the team’s lack of a true anchor at the center position. Often overlooked in the grand scheme of the NFL, having a solid center lends itself incredibly well to having a solid offensive line overall. The center sets the tone for the entire group and often has difficult assignments as they don’t typically know who they’ll have to block until the ball is snapped.

In the run game, a center is even more important as their job is often to chip and get to the second level. The great ones have that element to their games, and running games tend to flourish when they have a center that’s able to accomplish this.

As we saw with the incredibly mediocre Jon Halapio over the past two seasons, nothing is worse than when a play gets blown up immediately right up the middle. Additionally, having a center that can be a legit body mover helps out immensely in the short-yardage run game.

Luckily for the NY Giants, this draft is rich in terms of quality center talent and the team shouldn’t have much of a problem coming away with a day one starter if it invests one of its first few picks in one. Many believe GM Dave Gettleman could use his first two picks on an offensive tackle and a center back-to-back, which would totally change the complexion of this team for the better in years to come.

Waiting until the third round and beyond could be a risky play, but it might be the right one. There are four prospects that firmly make up the upper class of the center position in this year’s NFL draft.

Wisconsin’s Tyler Biadasz, Temple’s Matt Hennessy, Michigan’s Cesar Ruiz, and LSU’s Lloyd Cushenberry are all projected to land somewhere between rounds two and four according to WalterFootball.com.

As such, it’s going to be important for Gettleman to have a feel on how the draft is going, with the real possibility that he may need to trade up if he waits until later than the second round to address the position once the run on centers begins.

All four of these players grade out to be solid starters in the NFL and each of them would make the NY Giants better on day one with journeyman Spencer Pulley being the only real option at the position at the moment.