Are the Giants Taking a Big Risk After Not Adding to Offensive Line in Free Agency?
The New York Giants' free-agency spending spree touched nearly every position group on the team except for the most important one. Are they playing with fire in having taken this approach?
On the surface, it certainly would appear as such, especially after they decided to cut veteran guard Kevin Zeitler and not retain tackle Cameron Fleming, last year's starters on the right side.
But Giants general manager Dave Gettleman, who from Day 1 of his tenure vowed to fix the offensive line, believes that while veterans serve a purpose, the way to build the offensive line for the long-term is via the draft. This process, of course, means putting young, inexperienced players on the field to gain valuable experience.
"At some point in time, you’ve got to let the young kids play," Gettleman said last month. "Listen, every player was a rookie at some point or a young player at some point. At some point in time, you have to have confidence in who’s on your club and you have to put him in there and let him play."
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While he's not wrong, the risk the Giants are taking is in the timing. Starting quarterback Daniel Jones is entering his third season, a critical season. While the organization is confident he's their franchise quarterback of the future, he was still a part of the league's second-to-last worst offense in 2020 and, as such, has a few remaining questions he needs to answer on the field.
The Giants, to be fair here, have approached rebuilding the offense in a somewhat backward fashion. Rather than ensure they had a solid offensive line in place for Jones's arrival, they have built it on the fly. Last year at times, the unit played well; at others, not so much so.
But the Giants, who have hired Rob Sale to coach the unit as well as Pat Flaherty (a senior offensive assistant who groomed the Giants' offensive line under Tom Coughlin) in addition to returning assistant offensive line coach Ben Wilkerson, are confident that they can get the unit on the right track.
Check out the video above in which former NFL and college head coach Jim Mora Jr offered his thoughts about the Giants' offensive line plan, and whether they were taking a significant risk.
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