John Michael Schmitz Takes Charge of Navigating Giants' Offensive Line
The New York Giants are about to roll out their fourth starting offensive line combination on Monday Night when they host the Seattle Seahawks.
Already, as a result of injury and performance, the Giants have had to plug in different players at left tackle (Andrew Thomas/injured and Joshua Ezeudu), left guard (Ben Bredeson/injured and Mark Glowinski), and right guard (Glowinski and Marcus McKethan).
Center John Michael Schmitz and right tackle Evan Neal have been constant in the versions the Giants have fielded thus far. And Schmitz, who came in as a rookie ahead of his time, has been responsible for orchestrating the revolving door, a task he's happily embraced.
"You’ve got to be able to adjust," Schmitz said Tuesday. "You never know what’s going to happen. You’ve got to be ready to just go out there, whoever the five that are out there, and go and compete."
Unfortunately for the unit, which depends on continuity, the results haven't quite been what the team hoped for. According to Pro Football Focus, the Giants have a pass-blocking efficiency rating of 76.6, 30th in the league.
Schmitz will be among the first to admit that the unit can play better and that it starts with his play. In addition to improving his game, in which thus far he's allowed six pressures in 134 pass-blocking snaps, Schmitz is also trying to ease the transition each time a new offensive line combination hits the field.
"It's my responsibility to communicate on the line, making sure everyone's on the same page," he said. "We're seeing five as one, know who we're blocking, know who we're going to, our assignments."
Schmitz spoke about how he and the lineman go to the bench in between series and go over what happened on the previous series so that if what they saw comes up again, they're better prepared to handle it.
"You talk about it. You say, ‘This is what they did,’ and at the end of the day, we want to get things fixed," he said. "There are no pointing fingers. Not saying anyone did anything wrong; we just want to get it fixed so we can get things rolling."
Speaking of getting things rolling, Schmitz acknowledged that the Giants offense, which through three games has managed to score just six points in the first half of games, needs to get rolling a lot sooner.
"We’ve just got to start fast," he said. "We’ve got to come out with great energy. We’ve got to execute at a high level. We’ve just got to go."
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