New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has been impressed with the offensive line play thus far during training camp.
In 2018, the New York Giants offensive line was one of the reasons why the offense finished 17th in the NFL with 356.1 total yards-per-game. They were ranked the 21st offensive line in the league by Pro Football Focus. The O-Line also tied for 22nd in the league (with the Tennessee Titans) with 47 sacks allowed on the year. It’s the most amount of times Eli Manning has been sacked in one season throughout his 15 years in the NFL.
However, Big Blue made it a priority to improve the offensive line this offseason. They acquired guard Kevin Zeitler in a trade with the Cleveland Browns and signed veteran tackle Mike Remmers. The latter played in Minnesota when Pat Shurmur was the offensive coordinator.
Manning got the chance to speak to the media prior to training camp practice on Tuesday. Thus, he acknowledged that he’s impressed with the play of the front-five thus far.
“I think they are better off now just in a sense of a couple things,” Manning said, per Michael Eisen of the Giants official website. “There is a year under everybody’s belt. Last year, a lot of new guys, Nate [Solder’s] new, Will [Hernandez is] new, we have new guys on the right side, but also a new offense, new calls, new terminology. There’s a lot going on, we had to figure out a lot of things and work through and make the mistakes and try to fix them.
“This year, there’s a combination of guys that have been in this offense and bringing in a guy like Zeitler and Remmers, who has been in this style of offense before, the calls are very similar so he picks up right on it. I think all those things help them play that much faster, not having the mistakes, picking up things quicker like some of the twists that the defensive line does. I think it has been a lot smoother in that sense.”
The Giants also re-signed center Jon Halapio in the offseason. Halapio was slated to be the starting center for the Giants last year before landing on season-ending injured reserve. He ultimately suffered lower leg injuries in a Week 2 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Now, Halapio will compete with Spencer Pulley for the starting center job. Pulley appeared in 13 games for the Giants last year, starting in nine of them.
