New York Giants bench 1st-round pick Andrew Thomas

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge is benching his rookie left tackle, Andrew Thomas, for Sunday’s game against Washington.

Coming into Week 6, New York Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas was looking forward to accepting the challenge of stopping Chase Young. He had to wait for his opportunity to face off against the No. 2 pick.

ESPN’s Jordan Raanan reported shortly before kickoff that the Giants were benching Thomas in favor of fellow rookie Matt Peart. Raanan’s reporting was confirmed when the Giants took the field for the first time.

However, he started the second quarter for the Giants, and Raanan is reporting that the benching was not performance-related. That would seem to indicate that the decision to bench Thomas was discipline-related.

Joe Judge confirmed that suspicion to reporters in his postgame press conference. He told reporters that Thomas “violated team policy,” but it was nothing to be concerned about. This falls in line with Judge’s no-nonsense approach to his team.

Joe Judge explains the decision to start Matt Peart over Andrew Thomas:

"This was not performance based at all, Andrew violated team policy" pic.twitter.com/lSs0oYJp6Z

— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) October 18, 2020

“This was not performance-based at all and I’m not going to go too far into detail. What I will say is Andrew violated team policy,” Judge explained. “There was nothing disobedient, disrespectful, or malicious in what he did, but he made a mistake and there are consequences for mistakes.”

Judge also added that Thomas did a great job with accepting the punishment and moving forward.

First Win of the Season

The good news for the Giants is that they were able to secure their first win of the season. Mr. Irrelevant Tae Crowder is the hero of the day. The rookie scooped up a crucial Kyle Allen fumble and took it to the house.

7th-round pick Tae Crowder just gave the Giants the play they needed. Big time scoop and score #TogetherBlue https://t.co/AqOtqHV5bf

— ESNY (@EliteSportsNY) October 18, 2020

The Giants gave up a touchdown late, but Ron Rivera had his Washington Football Team go for the win on the two-point conversion. The Giants weren’t having it and forced Allen into an incomplete pass.

New York’s win over the Washington Football team puts the Giants at 1-4 on the season. If the Cowboys lose on Monday Night Football against the Arizona Cardinals, the Giants will be one game back of first place in the NFC East.