Why Jon Feliciano is Excited About Playing Center for Giants

Jon Feliciano hasn't had much experience at the center position in the NFL, but he's excited about filling the role for New York.

Two things crossed the mind of new Giants offensive lineman Jon Feliciano once the Buffalo Bills released him.

The first was potentially joining the New York Giants, a team whose head coach, Brian Daboll, and offensive line coach, Bobby Johnson, were guys Feliciano was familiar with from their days with the Bills.

"Yeah, honestly, when I saw (Daboll) got the job and then I got released, it was definitely one of the teams that first came to mind," Feliciano told reporters during a video conference call Wednesday afternoon.

Johnson, in particular, is someone Feliciano is happy to reunite with. The two date back to their time together with the Oakland Raiders, when they crossed paths during the 2015-2017 seasons (Feliciano played with the Raiders through the 2018 season, after Johnson left the team).

That relationship saw Johnson take a strong liking to Feliciano, so much so that he would give him extra opportunities on offense.

"I was a rotational guy, and Bobby did the goal-line plays," Feliciano said. "So every week, he would draw up the goal-line plays, and then he started looking out for me, and you know, putting me as his full back or tight end, or just putting me in anywhere he could--even in motion and running a couple of routes," he said.

Feliciano doesn't have a score to his name, but the added responsibility illustrates how much confidence Johnson had in learning new roles. This confidence level hasn't declined now that the team is looking to plug the 30-year-old offensive lineman in at center.

Playing center, by the way, is the other thing that crossed Feliciano's mind when he hit free agency. According to Pro Football Focus, the veteran has only played 323 snaps at the position since turning pro, the bulk of them with the Bills in his first two seasons there. But last year, Feliciano, who didn't play center in college, only played eight snaps as the position for the Bills.

Welcome to Big Blue, Jon Feliciano ✍️ pic.twitter.com/UYsKREq3pA

— New York Giants (@Giants) March 16, 2022

Feliciano's appreciation of the position came when he was in Oakland and had the chance to learn from Rodney Hudson.

"I took those four years of being a backup to learn a position that I didn't play in college," Feliciano said. "So from those first four years, I got to learn center, and I really fell in love with it--the responsibility that's on your hands and coming in every week and knowing that you have to know the defense, you gotta make the calls for the guys around you."

That knowledge plus his own desire to meet the challenge head-on--Feliciano emphasized that he wanted to play the position and said that both Johnson and Daboll agreed that would be his best fit on the Giants-- has Feliciano excited.

"I've been in a lot of people's ears for a lot of years trying to get into the center position," he said. "I honestly think it's my best position, and I'm just really excited to finally get to show what I got." 

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