Giants OL Jon Runyan Facing a Career Crossroads in Year 3 of His Contract

During the 2024 offseason, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen and then-head coach Brian Daboll decided that to fix the league’s 30th-ranked pass-blocking offensive line, they would go the veteran route.

One of the moves made was the signing of former Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Jon Runyan, Jr., a solid pass-blocking technician who, in two of his four seasons with the Packers (2021, his second season, and 2022), was among Green Bay’s highest-graded pass-blocking offensive linemen.

Big Blue actually found itself in a competition for Runyan’s services with the New York Jets. The Giants won the competition by upping their offer by $1 million per year to secure Runyan’s services, and to his credit, he became part of an offensive line that last year had moved from near the bottom of the league in pass-blocking to the fourth-best line.

JON RUNYAN, JR

Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 307 lbs.
Exp.: 7 years
School: Michigan
How Acquired: FA’24

2025 in Review

Runyan’s 2025 campaign was a tale of two seasons. In the first half, he started out slowly, likely due to his being at the tail end of his rehab from a season-ending shoulder injury that necessitated surgery the year prior. That compromised the power in his game at the start of the year.

By mid-year, Runyan was looking more like his old self, his pass-blocking, which has always been a strength, rounding into shape. By the time the season ended, Runyan had pitched three pass-blocking shutouts, including back-to-back efforts in Week 17 and 18.

Unfortunately, he also finished allowing 31 pressures, a career high, while being flagged six times, matching his career high in 2023.

As a run blocker, Runyan was often among the weak links, finishing with a career worst 49.2 grade from PFF in that category.

Contract/Cap Info

Runyan is in the final year of his three-year contract, with the last of his guaranteed money paid out in 2025. This year, Runyan carries an $11.75 million cap hit (3.9% of the team’s cap, per Over the Cap), of which $9 million is his base salary.

If the Giants move on from Runyan, they will save that $9 million and be hit with a $2.75 million dead money charge on their 2026 cap.

2026 Preview

Runyan can best be described as a technician who is solid in his technique and meticulous with attention to detail.

He possesses average athleticism and movement skills, and, perhaps more importantly, as the Giants get set to begin the John Harbaugh era, Runyan is the lightest of the projected starting five offensive linemen, weighing in at 307 pounds.

Harbaugh, from his days in Baltimore, has always opted for bigger, more athletic offensive linemen, looking for his interior guys to pull.

With the Giants having drafted Francis Mauigoa to play right guard, New York has a slew of other guards who will challenge Runyan for the starting left guard spot, among them being former Ravens guard Daniel Faalele, whom Harbaugh thought enough of to bring with him to East Rutherford.

Runyan got most of the reps at left guard during the spring with Faalele rotating in here and there. Once the pads go on this summer, it will become clearer if Harbaugh is willing to stick with Runyan, who, even though he doesn’t quite fit the prototype offensive lineman that Harbaugh’s past teams have had, is still a technically sound player.

If that happens, what will be interesting to see is what the Giants do with Runyan if he should lose the starting job. As previously noted, he has a $9 million base salary, which is a hefty figure to carry for a backup.

Again, it’s not that Runyan is a bad player; it’s just a matter of whether he fits what Harbaugh wants in his offensive linemen, which, based on history and what the Giants have started to do, does not look like the case.

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