Andrew Thomas‘ absence was glaringly visible on a historically bad pass-protection night. The Giants’ 11 sacks allowed set a Monday Night Football record, with backup left tackle Joshua Ezeudu struggling as the Seahawks padded their total late in the rout.
The Giants are expected to be without Thomas against the Dolphins as well. Brian Daboll said he is leaning no on the All-Pro left tackle coming back for Week 5. Thomas sustained a setback on his way back from the strained hamstring he suffered in Week 1, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. This will make four straight absences.
Ezeudu, who worked as a backup left tackle during parts of training camp, was expected to win one of the guard battles this summer. But those went to Ben Bredeson and Mark Glowinski. Though, the team’s setup inside has changed as well. Despite signing a three-year deal worth $18.3MM, Glowinski has endured multiple demotions this season. The Giants benched the longtime Colts starter after his Week 1 struggles, and the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy notes the veteran has been bumped to the bottom of the depth chart.
New York demoted Glowinski a second time during Week 2, and he did not play an offensive snap in Week 3. Bredeson and 2022 fifth-round pick Marcus McKethan, who missed all of his rookie year due to an ACL tear, opened Week 4 as Big Blue’s guard starters. Pro Football Focus ranks all three blockers outside the top 55 among guards. Shane Lemieux started ahead of Glowinski in Week 3 but suffered a groin injury Monday. The door keeps reopening for Glowinski, a four-year Colts right guard starter whom PFF viewed as a top-30 guard in his first Giants season. A 2024 release seems likely at this point, however. That move will save the Giants $5.7MM.
The Giants did not invest much in guards this offseason, having signed Glowinski in March 2022 and drafted Ezeudu in Round 3 a month later. No answers have come for the team, which has also seen right tackle Evan Neal continue to struggle. This allowed for Seahawks target practice on Daniel Jones on Monday night, and the Giants have since added Justin Pugh. The former 2013 Giants draftee joined the practice squad, but given the team’s guard state, the five-year Cardinals starter should be expected to be elevated soon.
Some additional shuffling became required after center John Michael Schmitz suffered a shoulder injury on the Giants’ failed “Tush Push”-style QB sneak. Adding insult to injury, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler notes tight end Daniel Bellinger sustained an MCL strain on that play. While Bellinger’s injury is seen as moderate, the Giants losing two regulars on that play — after only previously repping it in a walkthrough setting — compounds the troubles they are experiencing up front.
Matt Peart resides as the only other tackle on the Giants’ roster, in the event the team benches Ezeudu. Thomas, who is now the NFL’s second-highest-paid O-lineman after signing a $23.5MM-per-year extension this summer, is on track to match his career high for single-season absences. He missed four games in 2021 as well.
I’ll say two things about the Giants offensive line:
They always, always, always seem to have a bad offensive line, year after year.
The word “offensive” is usually a good way to describe it.
It is uncanny how the Giants manage to have a terrible offensive line every year no matter what they do. I feel like it’s punishment for the Seubert-O’Hara-Snee-MacKenzie-Diehl line being so good for a number of years. Giants have had a horrible offensive line for a decade now.
And the uncanny thing about that line was that none of those guys were stars, but all were solid pros who worked well together. You don’t have to spend tons of money or draft all first rounders to build the right line.
they invested some high draft picks in their line – and the results are amazing-ly bad. Giants had 1 mediocre season last year- the result of an EASY schedule – and they thought they were up-and-comers … LOL!
Last season they barely beat 500 teams. Naturally, the thought Dan was the next great QB!!! Bad management. I think D Dimes had 15 TD’s last season. There are 17 games.
The thing about Jones is that we’ve never had a chance to see him work with a competent offense. I don’t consider him to be a top level quarterback, but it’s impossible to grade him purely based on his own skill. New York has had awful, awful offensive lines in all of his years, and their receivers as a group have been mediocre with flashes of competence. Barkley has been hurt (and has been affected by that awful line as well). On top of that, Jones had to endure multiple coaching changes…including the Joe Judge fiasco.
Just as Mara said a couple of years ago, the Giants have done everything possible to screw Jones up. At this point, though, I would think that the damage might be permanent. Whatever Jones’ ceiling might have been with a good coaching staff, I have a feeling that it has probably been permanently affected in a negative way.
They have to be the worst Team in the League. Can they defeat the Bears ?
After 4 weeks the worst teams are clearly the Bears and the Broncos – thus the answer would appear to be Yes.
Giants don’t play Chicago or Denver this season.
I don’t think the Bears are “clearly the worst”. Giants have the worst point differential in the league by two touchdowns. Their point differential is on a historically bad pace. Outside of the second half of the game in Arizona, when they scored 31 points, the Giants only have 15 points (five FG and zero TD) in their other 14 quarters of play this year. They’re awful.
As bad as the Giants have looked the last two weeks, I don’t think that they are worse than the Bears (or the other team that they beat already, the Cardinals). They and Denver are probably on a similar level, but both of those teams have more talent than the wasteland that is either of those two former rosters (interestingly enough, both Chicago’s and Arizona’s only major stars are both at the safety position).
Thing is, one of Denver’s main issues has been knowing the offense, so there is some chance that that aspect of their game will improve. Their defense is not as sure at all. The Giants, on the other hand, are in a real predicament regarding their line. I loved the Neal pick at the time, but he’s been a very big disappointment. Glowinski has fallen off a cliff. The other interior players have been awful. Even with Thomas returning, the line would still look pretty bad. Jones’ mobility partially disguises it, actually, on the stat sheet. As many times as he’s been dumped, he’s escaped several more. Of course, those usually don’t end positively. I don’t know where Carolina falls in this rung, because Young’s development later will dictate a lot.
I wonder what the back half of Eli’s career could have been with a good line. The mid to late 2000s when the Giants had a good o-line seems so long ago. He didn’t have one in 2011 (or a good running game, or a good defense until the playoffs – he should have been MVP that year). Eli spent 2012-17 running for his life half the time and the other half taking 3 step drops and having a guy wrapped around his legs by the third step while being ridiculed while guys like Romo and Rivers who had much better protection were praised. It was a miracle Eli put up the numbers he did because we’d be glowing about Jones if he put up 2012-17 Eli numbers now.
I was hoping at least Schmitz would be average and the rest of the line better. Neal has been a Flowers-level turnstyle.