The line is functional now, but is it set up for the future?
The New York Giants won the 2011 Super Bowl with help from an aging, creaky offensive line on its last effective legs. Since then, the line they have trotted out has more often than not resembled a sieve.
Three general managers, five head coaches, and many offensive line coaches have tried to fix it. None has had more than fleeting success.
Current GM Joe Schoen has culled together a 2024 line that has at least been competent, even with star left tackle Andrew Thomas out for the season.
Let’s look at what Schoen has gotten right and wrong on the offensive during his three seasons as GM, as well as what remains to be done.
Current roster: Jermaine Eluemunor, Jon Runyan Jr., John Michael Schmitz, Greg Van Roten, Evan Neal, Chris Hubabrd, Josh Ezeudu, Aaron Stinnie, Jake Kubas
Injured reserve: Andrew Thomas
Players drafted since 2022: Evan Neal (Round 1, No. 7, 2022) | Josh Ezeudu (Round 3, No. 67, 2022) | Marcus McKethan (Round 5, No. 173, 2022) | John Michael Schmitz (Round 2, No. 57, 2023)
Biggest free agent acquisitions: Jon Runyan Jr. | Jermaine Eluemunor | Greg Van Roten | Mark Glowinski | Jon Feliciano | Justin Pugh
Biggest losses: Ben Bredeson | Feliciano
What Schoen got wrong
Drafting Evan Neal No. 7 overall
There is no way to look at this pick, even if almost every reputable draft analyst in the business thought at the time that Neal deserved to be picked where Schoen and the Giants took him, and say anything other than that it turned out wrong.
Neal played terribly during his first two seasons, and he wasn’t healthy enough to practice and play regularly enough to give himself a legitimate chance to show substantial improvement.
Something about the way Schoen conducted that 2022 draft, when he had picks 5 and 7, has always gnawed at me.
Schoen said when he picked Neal at No. 7 that he did so “because Ickey was gone at six.” That referred to the Carolina Panthers taking offensive tackle Ickey Ekwonu at No. 6. Did Schoen get cute by taking edge Kayvon Thibodeaux at No. 5 and miss out on the tackle he wanted? If Ekwonu was his No. 1 offensive tackle, he probably could have taken him at No. 5 and still grabbed Thibodeaux at No. 7.
I will probably never know the true answer to how Schoen had those players rated.
Neal played well in his first start of the season in Week 10 against the Carolina Panthers. Maybe he can still rescue his career. I hope he can.
Drafting two offensive linemen from North Carolina
Schoen selected Josh Ezeudu in Round 3 and Marcus McKethan in Round 5. They were starters on a North Carolina Tar Heels offensive line that allowed 49 sacks during the 2021 season, 128th out of 130 FBS teams. Even if some of that could be blamed on quarterback Sam Howell’s tendency to take unnecessary sacks, it indicated North Carolina did not have a good line.
Ezeudu has failed to thus far at guard and tackle. McKethan is already out of the league.
Everything about 2023 … except (maybe) drafting John Michael Schmitz
In need of a long-term answer at center, Schoen selected John Michael Schmitz in Round 2. Schmitz had a rough rookie season but has shown enough improvement in Year 2 to believe that he could be the solid anchor in the middle of the line the Giants were hoping he would be.
There isn’t much else nice to say about the 2023 line or the decisions that led to its disastrous play.
- The Giants played musical chairs at guard all spring and summer, sometimes rotating plays on a snap-by-snap basis. They did not settle on a starting line until just before Week 1 of the regular season.
- When Mark Glowinski had a bad opening game, the Giants benched him and fed a not-ready McKethan to the wolves. They swallowed him.
- When Thomas was injured, they stuck Ezeudu at left tackle — a position he wasn’t prepared to or capable of playing.
- They changed lineup combinations, at times because of injury but at other times for inexplicable reasons, week after week.
The backup tackle plan
Even after Ezeudu failed miserably trying to replace Thomas in 2023, the Giants doubled down on using him as the backup left tackle. At least until they had to use him for a game.
Schoen said the original plan was that Neal would be the starting right tackle and Jermaine Elueumunor, signed in free agency, would be a starting guard and be the first option to move to tackle if needed.
When it became apparent Neal would not recover from offseason ankle surgery in time to open the season, Eluemunor moved to right tackle. The problem? Until the midseason poaching of Chris Hubbard off the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad, the Giants were left with no better left tackle option than Ezeudu.
Not selecting a lineman in the 2024 draft
Even though Schoen did well to re-construct the line by finding quality veterans in free agency, which we will get into in the next section, there is no up-and-coming talent in the pipeline unless undrafted free agent rookie guard Jake Kubas overachieves.
What Schoen got right
2024 free agency
Schoen went all-in on veteran free agents to build a functional line and buy himself time to find and add younger pieces in the draft. It has worked.
Schoen signed three starters: Left guard Jon Runyan Jr. (three years, $30 million, $17 million guaranteed); Right tackle turned left tackle Jermaine Eluemunor (two years, $14 million, $6.75 million guaranteed); Right guard Greg Van Roten (one year, $2 million, $920K guaranteed). He also added backup guard Aaron Stinnie (one year, $1.292 million, $100K guaranteed).
Per Pro Football Focus, the Giants’ line grades 23.4 points better than a year ago. After giving up a league-worst 85 sacks in 2023, the Giants have surrendered 29 this year. That puts them on pace to allow 49.
Runyan and Van Roten have been charged with just three sacks between them. Eluemunor was excellent at right tackle before moving to the left as the Giants decided to give Neal an opportunity. He has been charged with three sacks allowed.
The Giants, without Saquon Barkley, are still in the top half of the league in rushing success rate:
Signing Andrew Thomas to an extension
The star left tackle has missed significant time due to injuries the past two seasons, but I still view Schoen getting him to sign an extension that could keep him with the Giants through 2029 favorably. Quality left tackles are not easy to find, and when you have a top-tier homegrown one you shouldn’t let him get away.
What needs to come next
Schoen accomplished, for the most part, what he set out to do with the 2024 offensive line. Even without Thomas, it appears to be functional. That is a massive upgrade from last year, and from what we have seen too many times in the last dozen or so years.
Is it sustainable, though? Van Roten will be 35 next season. Eluemunor will be entering his ninth season. Thomas will be coming off a second straight season of dealing with a significant injury.
There is work to be done.
What to do with Neal
As I said above, he acquitted himself well against the Panthers. If he can stay healthy, he would appear to have the next seven games to show he can be a capable right tackle. If he can’t be, the Giants almost certainly have to try him at guard next season and allow Eluemunor to handle right tackle. If Neal, who has always been resistant to a move inside, balks the Giants simply have to find a taker for him and move on.
Admit that Ezeudu is a guard
Even now, after Ezeudu flopped at tackle last year and was removed from the lineup for 12-year journeyman Chris Hubbard after one poor start this season at left tackle, the Giants have continued to insist that Ezeudu can play tackle and guard.
Stop it. Just stop it.
Ezeudu showed positional flexibility in college, but the Giants drafted him as an interior player. After he failed to win a starting guard job two years in a row, they suddenly decided to make him a tackle. NFL teams often make failed tackles into guards. They don’t make failed guards into tackles — the more difficult position to play.
Get a real swing tackle. Maybe that is Eluemunor. Maybe it is Tyre Phillips. Perhaps it is someone else. Maybe it’s a draft pick.
Whatever. They need to be better prepared for injuries at tackle, and they need to be fair to Ezeudu by giving him one more shot to play guard, the position he should have been playing all along, full-time.
Add youth in the draft
Honestly, you should try to do this year after year. One of the reasons the line play of 2024 might not be sustainable is that there are no young players ready to step in.
Ezeudu’s confidence is shattered, and whether or not he can be rebuilt as a guard-only option is debatable. McKethan was not the answer. Kubas is a player the Giants like, but he was a UDFA and what he can be is unknown.
Whether it is an interior lineman, a tackle, or both, adding some young, developmental talent to the line in the draft is a must.
