OT Matt Peart: The Good, the Great and the Ugly

Matt Peart has all the tools to be a starting right tackle for the Giants. But what does he need to polish up this summer? Nick Falato looks at the tape to find out.

Author:
Nick Falato
Publish date:
Jul 18, 2021 11:56 AM EDT

The Giants doubled down on the tackle position in the 2020 draft. It was a necessary move, and value seemed to be there late in the third round when UCONN’s Matt Peart, an incredibly long, athletic, smooth-moving, yet raw, tackle fell right into the Giants' lap. Peart and first-round selection Andrew Thomas now can be book-end starting tackles for the foreseeable future.

This possibility isn’t quite a reality yet; both tackles need to show more consistency and growth in their development. They both had solid flashes in their rookie seasons, but mistakes and insufficient technique marred both seasons. Peart only played 150 total snaps. He was behind career swing tackle Cameron Fleming, and that probably was for the best.

Peart has all the athletic ability and length that is desired in a starting NFL tackle.

His lower body explosiveness, combined with his length and nimble feet, are recipes for a great tackle, but there’s so much more to mastering the position than just measurables and quickness.

Peart started the season well in Week 6, where he played 24 total snaps; he then continued to play in a solid manner during spot duty, but he contracted COVID-19 down the season's stretch. Upon returning, he wasn’t the same. It may not be due to the virus, but it’s worth noting.

His technique suffered, and he was much less effective in pass protection. Defensive coordinators like Arizona’s Vance Joseph and Baltimore’s Don “Wink” Martindale schemed to attack Peart when he came into the game.

Hopefully, Peart learned from the mistakes we will go over in this edition of the Good, the Great, and the Ugly. The flashes were bright, but there’s still so much development needed.

(Matt Peart is No. 74.)

The Good: Quickness in Pass Sets

Peart’s pass sets aren’t always the most confident, nor are they the most consistent, but they are incredibly quick when he has to kick out, and forty-five degree set a wide technique. He’s also quick in his vertical sets; he explodes off his inside foot and quickly pats the ground, gaining depth when necessary.

Peart is the right tackle in this 13-personnel package to the double-Y side. Both tight ends will release into routes, and it’s Peart’s responsibility to locate Ryan Kerrigan (No. 91), who is directly lined up over the top of the outside tight end.

He effortlessly covers ground with long power steps to close width on Kerrigan before splitting the pass rusher in half with his outside hand on Kerrigan’s chest and his inside hand on the small of his back. From there, Peart mirrors Kerrigan up the arc and sticks with the talented pass rusher till the play is over.

He quickly gains depth against Montez Sweat (90) on this set and isn’t deterred by Sweat’s strong chop of his outside arm. Peart keeps himself balanced while moving quickly and mirroring, with a low center of gravity that keeps Sweat from impacting the play. The result is an Evan Engram touchdown pass.

These next two plays are against rookie phenom Chase Young (No. 99). He quickly gets out of his stance and squares up Young, not allowing the rookie to gain the half-man on the edge. Peart’s hips are low, as is his hat, and he is able to make solid contact with his inside hand to disallow Young from countering inside.

Peart absorbs the contact well, gets a hold of some cloth, anchors down, and is able to get Young off-balanced enough to fall and be eliminated from the rep. Peart adjusts well throughout the rep and solidly deals with Young.

The technique here isn’t excellent, but Peart does a great job meeting Young up the arc and not allowing an easy path for the pass rusher. Overextending a bit while engaged with Young, Peart is still able to anchor down, and he has the grip strength to hold Young in place just long enough not to allow him to sack Daniel Jones. The quarterback steps up and away from a falling Kevin Zeitler (No. 70) and finds his target.

The Great: Better Run Blocker Than Expected

I was surprised by Peart’s ability to run block, especially earlier in the season, to hinder defenders was evident. I wish he had a bit more pop in his hands, but he does a good job driving through targets, like against Kerrigan above.

He has to kick out and locate a wide-9 defender; he explodes through his lower body, making contact while driving with his legs and using his might to take out the end man on the line of scrimmage. This is an intriguing play against an adequate run defender.

Peart also showed solid strike timing and placement when on the edge; he displays this type of torque and strength upon contact to remove smaller defenders from the play--something that isn’t as easy as it may sound. The positioning of Peart on this play is superb, but Golden Tate helps him (No. 15) by tripping over the rusher’s foot.

This DEUCE scoop block against Daron Payne (No. 94), a player that consistently gives the Giants fits, is an excellent representation of Peart’s upside as a blocker. Peart is long, and he can move, but scoop blocking requires excellent timing, cohesion, and a low pad level that is typically difficult for players that are over 6’6".

Payne absorbs the double-team, and Peart transitions his body weight to the opposite side of Payne, allowing the other offensive linemen to climb and locate the linebacker. These blocks aren’t easy, but Peart gets the job done here.

Another great DEUCE combo transition block from Zeitler and Peart here. The Giants are in double Y to Peart’s side, so the 3-technique will be the target for Peart on a down block. Tim Settle (No. 97) splits the double team for a moment but is finished off and driven down the line of scrimmage by Peart, providing a slight hole for Alfred Morris (No. 41).

The down block is typically an easier block for the tackle in these situations, provided that the player has the lower leg drive to handle opposing power. However, the timing and transition are still important.

This may be my favorite Peart run-block of the season; a counter-trey play where Peart is going to be tasked to block down on the 3-technique and then be the climber in the DEUCE to locate the linebacker. He assists Zeitler with the quick hands to the defender's back while his eyes are up to locate.

Then he transitions his body, flips his hips, and climbs to the second level to find the linebacker scraping over the top of the double teams. This play displays awareness, athletic ability, and great location skills in space.

Peart showed some good tape as a run blocker, mostly early in the season against Washington. A lot of his tape is hit-or-miss in some of the other contests, albeit he wasn’t playing a full complement of snaps. He also has intriguing pass protection skills, but it’s not nearly as consistent as it has to be - that can hopefully improve in 2021.

The Ugly: Pass Protection Flaws

Against Baltimore

On three consecutive plays in the third quarter against Baltimore, the Ravens were able to scheme up three pressures to Matt Peart’s side. After the third sack, we didn’t see Peart on the field for another snap-in 2020. Maybe it was the COVID-19 effects, or maybe teams just figured Peart out, but it’s not pretty as you’ll see…

Peart vertical sets to meet Matt Judon (99) up the arc but can’t split the man as we saw earlier against Kerrigan. He tries to initiate contact with his outside arm, but Judon chops the extended arm downward, forcing Peart’s momentum forward and stopping his mirroring ability up the pass-rushing arc. Judon then dips his inside shoulder around the tight turn, corners, and nails Daniel Jones. It's a terrible play compounded by the following two plays.

Baltimore comes out with a wide-9 rusher in Judon and Calais Campbell (93) as a slightly leaning outside 5-technique. Martindale is aware that Peart is a rookie who just got beat around the edge, so he throws this stunt at the young player.

Matt Judon sells his rush like he’s going vertical again, which draws Peart’s attention outside and creates tunnel vision while Campbell aims to split both Peart and Zeitler, creating a pick for a slanting Judon.

Peart fails to realize Campbell’s intentions, and Zeitler handles Judon, but there is no transition because Peart allows Campbell to run through his inside shoulder. Peart didn’t expect the stunt that was disguised well, and his attention wasn’t on Campbell, but it was on Judon, so Campbell was able to easily separate from the right side of the Giants’ offensive line.

I’m not entirely sure if this sack falls on Peart, but the slide protection did not go towards the blitz. The Ravens use creepers and overload Peart’s side with a blitz; the creepers force Zeitler to help Nick Gates (No. 65) out with his assignment, with the expectation that the blitz was coming from that side. Peart is left alone with three different rushers, and there’s not much the protection can do once it has been manipulated to that degree.

Other issues

We see Peart against the Arizona Cardinals above get into his quick vertical set and drop his back foot upon taking on contact while attempting to catch the hands of the rusher. In doing so, his momentum comes forward, his head is down, his feet aren’t set, and his balance is terrible.

His feet end up getting wide, he’s hunched over, and there’s no ability for him to protect the half-man relationship outside since one foot (the outside one) is planted in the ground, and the other is unstably moving. With his momentum already being forward, the pass rusher easily pulls him downwards and evades his blocking attempt, resulting in a sack of an immobile Jones.

Markus Golden (No. 44) slides inside right at the snap to force Peart inward and allow the blitzing defensive back to loop around and be picked up by the running back. Peart doesn’t do the best job handling Golden, who gets into Peart’s space and quickly drives the big tackle backward with power and a solid outside long arm move.

Peart can’t get his inside arm on Golden, who relentlessly drives Peart backward until he can separate, due to a lack of control executed by Peart. This shows a slight lack of adjustment ability from right before the snap till the snap. It also shows an inability to anchor when a player like Golden restricted the space for Peart to operate and sink his hips to lower his hat.

I’ve criticized Peart in the past for having “passive hands” in pass protection. I don’t believe he has the same pop or authority in his hands, upon contact, that Andrew Thomas possesses. He’s a bit more finesse and rather touches or keeps at bay instead of dictating the play with his big mitts.

The set here against Kerrigan lacked the desired depth, and it allowed the older pass rusher to win around the edge. Peart’s inconsistent set depth, combined with his lack of pop, allowed Ryan Kerrigan to win the edge and bend through the contact. There’s no sack, but still, some things that should probably be a bit cleaner.

This play isn’t a terrible down block by Peart after William Gholston (No. 92) tosses Zeitler to the ground, but it does show a high center of gravity and a lack of explosiveness through his hips.

Peart lowers his body like he’s going to explode power through his target in the DEUCE block, but he just touches him and starts to shimmy his weight, hip to hip, against Gholston. The positioning isn’t terrible, but I feel like there could be more overall power in a play like this one.

Final Thoughts

Peart was the 99th overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, and he flashed in his rookie season. He showed more than enough ability as a run blocker while also revealing those intriguing pass blocking traits that made him an appealing prospect coming out of UCONN.

I don’t believe he is a shoo-in to excel in 2021, but the upside and physical abilities are there. Can this coaching staff help manifest the immense upside that Peart seems to have? We will see what Rob Sale can do with this great potential.