NY Giants: 7 reasons to be excited about the future

Offensive Line Experience

There is no substitute for experience, and if nothing else, the Giants’ offensive lineman picked up some much needed experience this season.

Between Nate Solder opting out and Will Hernandez testing positive for COVID, the Giants depended on a couple of rookies to protect Daniel Jones’ blindside.

Rookies Andrew Thomas and Shane Lemieux played left tackle and guard, while the experienced veterans Kevin Zeitler and Cameron Fleming played guard and tackle on the right. Third-year pro Nick Gates held down the center.

It was a mixed year for the rag-tag bunch, and only partly because the drama at a bye-week coaching change. While the Giants improved on rushing the ball, they digressed in the passing game. Worse, they allowed more sacks this season.

In fact, only the Eagles beat-up offensive line allowed more sacks than the Giants. The Eagles allowed 65. The Giants, the Washington Football Team, and the Houston Texans allowed 50.

Thomas was responsible for many of those. Pro Football Focus has Thomas allowing 10 of those 50 sacks, which would be tied for most in the league. He only had an overall grade of 62.4, which was actually second best along the line. Lemieux had the worst with 32.2, Gates had 59.5, Zeitler had the best at 65.9, and Fleming had 58.4.

Thomas was not drafted to start at left tackle. And the Giants through Ereck Flowers already know what could happen when you keep someone who can’t hang at that position. But Thomas improved as the season went on, showing far more promise than Flowers did in his rookie season; Flowers was rated just 54.9 by PFF that season.

With a full year under their belt, and the team trending in the right direction, this offense of line could become more of a singular unit. It remains to be seen how they’ll shift the line to include Solder and Hernandez.

But as bad as the line was, they never got down on each other, and they never got down on themselves. The team believes that their younger guys can develop into an offensive line that can dominate.

The line can’t get much worse. And while that always seemed to be the kiss of death for the Giants’ offensive line, which seems to continuously get worse, this young offensive line should excite fans going forward.