NY Giants following Dallas Cowboys’ offensive roster building approach
NY Giants trying to pair QB on a rookie deal with a young, capable offensive line just like the Cowboys did
Now, to be fair, the Dallas Cowboys kind of “lucked” into this one as after a disastrous 2015 season that saw the downfall of the Tony Romo era, Jerry and Stephen Jones plucked a gem out of the top of the fourth round otherwise known as Dak Prescott.
It’s incredibly doubtful that they planned on having Dak Prescott be their star quarterback of the future, as the team initially welcomed Romo back in 2015 before injuries held him out, but that’s not the point here.
It’s clear to combining a quarterback on a rookie deal with any sort of meaningful talent is a quick path to relevancy in today’s NFL but the Cowboys proved pairing that QB on a rookie deal with an elite offensive line is the most lethal approach.
Even though the Cowboys haven’t won anything significant come January under Dak Prescott, the team has still won the NFC East title 3/5 years and has two playoff wins; NY Giants fans would kill for that type of production right about now.
The NY Giants won’t get to enjoy the overall cap savings on a QB’s rookie deal as Daniel Jones was drafted three rounds higher than Dak, but nonetheless, Jones will be making bottom-tier money as far as NFL starting QB’s go.
Even this goes against the correct form of roster rebuilding this article has discussed, funny enough, both teams also invested a top-five pick in a runningback during their rebuilding spans, as well.
Jason Garrett will also be seeing over this offensive rebuilding process just like he did in Dallas as that should inspire even more confidence in NY Giants fans that this could work as he’s built an offensive juggernaut under these same circumstances already.
If Big Blue’s offensive line takes a big jump this year and gets some of its younger assets on the field in a meaningful fashion, we could see this strategy work once again in the NFC East, although this time it will be for the NY Giants.
Daniel Jones isn’t up for a new contract officially for four more years, meaning the team would have three years to go for it with a young offensive line – Kevin Zeitler is the line’s current oldest player by a mile at 30 – while being able to allocate cap space to other important areas.
I mean, take a look at what our 2021 – and 2020 if I had my way – offensive line could look like it in terms of age and salary.
*Potential 2021 NYG offensive line*
— GMEN HQ (@GMENHQ) August 1, 2020
LT: Andrew Thomas, 23, $8M cap hit
LG: Will Hernandez, 25, $1.82M cap hit
C: Shane Lemeiux, 24, 900k cap hit
RG: Kevin Zeitler, 31, $11M cap hit
RT: Nick Gates, 25, $5M cap hit
Swing tackle: Matt Peart, 24, $1M cap hit
That’s how you REBUILD
(***Side note: I meant to put their APY’s instead of “cap hits”, although they are all very close)
Of course, this task will become easier when Nate Solder’s albatross of a contract comes off the books completely in 2022, but I’m hoping the NY Giants do next year what they should have done this year and make the struggling vet a post-June-1 cut which would spread his dead cap hits out over two years.
At the end of the day, throwing Nate Solder back into the fray in 2021 – or if it even had happened in 2020, in my opinion – would be a disaster for this rebuilding team and offensive line.
Next. Leonard Williams shows up to training camp with injury. dark
NY Giants fans finally have cause to be excited about their team’s offensive line and it’s been quite some time since that’s been the case.
Pairing that offensive line with Daniel Jones on his rookie contract might just get us back to where we want to be, and if that happens, Dave Gettleman deserves a ton of credit.