If the New York Giants want to get anything going on offense, they’ll have to fill the giant void they have at left tackle.
If you watched the New York Giants-Green Bay Packers game during Wild Card weekend, you saw the Giants inability to get anything going on offense.They were held to 70 yards on the ground and Eli Manning sported a paltry 53.7 QBR. Odell Beckham Jr. was held to 28 yards on four catches in his playoff debut. The major cause of this sluggish offensive showing was poor play from the Giants offensive line.
The offensive line was a problem all season. Manning often had little time to throw and the running backs have had trouble finding holes.
Ereck Flowers, the left tackle, and Bobby Hart, the right tackle, combined to let up over 100 quarterback pressures. Clearly, neither Ereck Flowers nor Bobby Hart is the long-term answer at their respective positions. If the Giants want to do better than a 25-point loss during Wild Card weekend, they have to use this offseason to do so.
If the Giants want to address this problem, they should look to draft an offensive lineman. This year, Ryan Ramczyk and Cam Robinson are at the top of the list of draft-eligible collegiate linemen.
Ramczyk is a former Division III player, but transferred to Wisconsin and immediately anchored the offensive line of the No. 8 team in the country. Ramczyk did not allow a single QB pressure on the first 100-pass-block attempts and ended the season as a First Team All-American by the Associated Press.
Cam Robinson was unanimously voted a First Team All-American this year and awarded the Outland Trophy, which is given to the top interior lineman on the nation’s top interior team. Robinson has been a starter since he was a true freshman at Alabama and has NFL-caliber talent.
If either of these players is around when the Giants pick in the draft, it would be a wise choice and would straighten out some of the problems on the Giants offensive line.
Last year, the Giants committed big money to Janoris Jenkins, Damon Harrison and Olivier Vernon. These expenditures propelled the Giants from pretender to contender until their offensive line gave out.
The Giants offense has immense potential, with established stars such as Odell Beckham Jr, Eli Manning and promising up-and-comers like Paul Perkins and Sterling Shepard. Despite the integral playmakers, if the Giants want to make another run, they must fill the giant hole at left tackle.
