New York Giants offensive line coach Hal Hunter greatly praises Kevin Zeitler, speaks on competition at the center position.
The New York Giants made it a priority this offseason to improve an offensive line ranked 21st in the NFL last year by Pro Football Focus. In the process, they signed tackle Mike Remmers and acquired Kevin Zeitler in a trade with the Cleveland Browns.
On Thursday, prior to Giants training camp practice, offensive line coach Hal Hunter greatly praised the newly-acquired Zeitler. Per Madelyn Burke of the Giants official website, Hunter said Zeitler “is the most serious, focused, all-about-football guy” he’s been around in his 38 years of coaching.
“It starts to get contagious with the other guys, he’s a no-nonsense guy…you can see it’s working through the room a little bit,” Hunter added.
The Giants received Zeitler in March when they traded Pro Bowl linebacker Olivier Vernon to Cleveland. Zeitler is formerly a first-round pick. The Cincinnati Bengals chose him with the No. 27 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft out of the University of Wisconsin. He spent five years with the Bengals and two years with the Browns before becoming a Giant.
Hunter also spoke about the competition at the center position.
Big Blue currently has Jon Halapio and Spencer Pulley competing for the job. The former was given the starting job last season for the Giants. However, he landed on season-ending injured reserve with lower leg injuries sustained in a Week 2 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Pulley then appeared in 13 games for the Giants at center, starting in nine of them.
Hunter mentioned they wouldn’t make their decision now but would evaluate both in the preseason, per Burke.
#Giants OL coach Hal Hunter discussing the competition at Center between Jon Halapio and Spencer Pulley, says both getting first and second team reps in practice… adds team wont make any decisions on the position in practice, will do all the evaluations in the preseason games
— Madelyn Burke (@MadelynBurke) August 1, 2019
The Giants continue their second week of training camp on Thursday, one week before their first preseason game against the New York Jets.
