The Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll era of New York Giants football is well and truly underway.
The disappointing year that was 2021 is now in the past, and all eyes are now on rebuilding the Giants once again.
After coming off yet another losing season, the New York Giants extend their playoff drought to six seasons outside the postseason.
The New York Giants have a multitude of positions on both sides of the ball that the front office will look to rebuild as Schoen has his take on building a winner.
Some of these positions stand out like a sore thumb the past few seasons and the Schoen and staff should focus their efforts at ticking these boxes.
Here’s a look at 3 positions the New York Giants must address this offseason.
Rebuild the offensive line
The New York Giants’ offensive line with the exception of Andrew Thomas was drastically subpar in 2021.
Second-year left tackle Andrew Thomas took a huge leap in his development as a player, and finished the year with a 78.9 PFF grade and conceded just two sacks.
On the other side of the offensive line, Nate Solder posted in another bad performance and struggled against the burst of speed in the current crop of edge rushers, giving up six sacks in his comeback season after opting out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matt Peart was once a project in development at right tackle but to lose the starting job to Nate Solder in 2021 has plummeted his stock.
The Giants are highly thought to take one of the premier offensive tackles in the 2022 NFL Draft with one of their top 10 picks.
Grabbing someone like Evan Neal or Ikem Ekwonu to play right tackle would be a huge benefit for Quarterback Daniel Jones.
Both of these players could be massive improvements to the Giants at right tackle, but Evan Neal fits the Giants’ needs more since he has more experience playing at right tackle and has a very good resume at it.
New York Giants must significantly upgrade center
With the New York Giants having a big need for offensive lineman this offseason, there’s a very high chance that they take two in the first round of the draft.
Nick Gates was the starting center for the Giants in 2021 after showing some promise following a transition from left guard.
Unfortunately, Gates suffered a devastating injury in Week 2 against the Washington Football Team. Gates needed a total of six surgeries to repair both his tibia and fibula.
For what everyone seemed was a potential career-ender, Gates is said to make a full recovery, but the gamble seems to much of a risk for the Giants especially since there are options at the position the Giants can go after.
One of these players is the Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum.
The 21-year old has scouts labeling generational and is widely praised and considered the best care to come out of the draft in years.
The Giants have the luxury of draft capital and could definitely take him with one of their picks, they might try to trade back with a team looking to jump up the board and take a quarterback and still walk out the first round with Linderbaum.
Linderbaum has all the tools to excel at playing center in the NFL and would be a big keystone piece on the offensive line in the rebuild.
Pass rush remains a top priority
In recent years the Giants defense has fought tooth and nail and probably doesn’t get enough credit. The defensive co-ordinator vacancy is filled by former Raven Wink Martindale.
The Giants have been running a base 3-4 for a few years under Patrick Graham with a few blitz packages in the mix.
Martindale brings the same 3-4 shaped defense but with a heavy blitz package focus.
Nobody blitz’s more than Martindale and that’s shown by the Ravens having the league’s highest blitzing percentage from 2018-20.
The Giants have struggled with pass-rushing the last couple years. Azeez Ojulari had a promising rookie season with eight sacks and thirteen quarterback hits.
Adding another edge presence to compliment Ojulari who is bigger and can play in a 3-4 defense and two-point stance would compliment the entire Giants defense in 2022 and beyond.
Just like the other positions listed, the Giants will probably address it in the draft with one of their nine picks.
Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux and Purdue’s George Karlaftis would be the two best pass rushers the Giants could pick in the draft, assuming Aidan Hutchinson is already taken.
Thibodeaux, in particular, would be the perfect pickup as he played outside linebacker for Oregon which would be the position he would most likely play for the New York Giants, and can be solid when dropping back to cover.