Joe Judge Declines to Name Giants' Starting Left Tackle for Thursday Night
New York Giants rookie Matt Peart, who last week played 26 snaps at left tackle and allowed just one pressure in that stint, has created a problem for head coach Joe Judge and offensive line coach Marc Colombo.
The problem? Peart, the Giants, third-round pick out of UConn, has made it difficult for Judge and Colombo to keep him on the bench.
Not that they mind, as having Peart step up and improve at what seems like a rapid pace is a good problem for the team to have.
Judge said he would be comfortable allocating more snaps to Peart Thursday night when the Giants visit the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Yeah, I think he did a good enough job. I've confidence to put him on the field,” Judge said, adding, “I've confidence in Andrew, I've conference in Cam (Fleming), I've confidence in all our offense linemen. So has [Peart] earned the right to be on the field and contribute? Absolutely.”
Peart’s extended playing time last week came about when Andrew Thomas, the team’s first-round draft pick, was benched for missing a team meeting Saturday night. Thomas ended up rotating at left tackle with Peart, with the latter appearing to have a better showing and one that has brought about this unusual arrangement Judge is contemplating.
Rotating offensive linemen during the regular season isn’t typically a common practice for the simple reason that teams generally like to build continuity and cohesiveness in the communication among offensive linemen.
But for Judge has shown he’s not afraid to think outside the box, and he hasn’t hesitated in rewarding players who step up in practice and show him that they’re ready to handle a bigger workload.
That’s where the Giants are with Peart.
“Matt's guys shown a lot of improvement the way he works in practice,” Judge said. “We've seen it from the team periods of the individual one-on-one pass, rush periods. He showed progress in the games and the action he's seen., Andrew has been doing a good job for us as well. So to me, it's just important to get guys involved and let them play and learn.”
Judge was pleased with how Thomas accepted his punishment for his indiscretion. With that said, he also refused to come right out and say whether Thomas or Peart would get the start at left tackle against the Eagles.
“We’ll go through practice and see how everything shakes out,” Judge said. “But I was pleased with the way both he and Matt played, along with Cam. We've got multiple guys who play the positions—Matt’s a guy who has worked on the right and the left, and we practice Andrew both on the right and left as it is anyway.
“And Cam gets reps on the left as well, just to make sure we're all in position if we have to get our numbers called. So we'll go through practice these next couple of days and kind of see where everything shakes out. But we expect all of them to be at the game and we expect all of them play.”
