The Giants’ weak link is sick of the bad rap
Giants offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan raved about the team’s options on offense and all the possibilities having so many weapons can create for quarterback Eli Manning. Sullivan talked about the wide receivers — Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall and Sterling Shepard — rookie tight end Evan Engram and the potential in explosive second-year running back Paul Perkins.
Sullivan didn’t specifically mention the offensive line. Perhaps there is a reason for that. That group might be the only thing preventing the Giants’ offense from being one of the premier units in the NFL.
“I think we know that,” left guard Justin Pugh said Wednesday after the second of three minicamp practices. “I think that’s been a theme in every season that I’ve been here.”
Pugh, who was held out of practice with a sore back, and center Weston Richburg are considered the two constants of the group, young talented players who could become Pro Bowlers. After them there are a series of questions marks.
The Giants are banking that young tackles Ereck Flowers and Bobby Hart will take a step forward after bringing in backup offensive guard D.J. Fluker this offseason. Oddly, they drafted only one offensive lineman, using a sixth-round pick on Pittsburgh’s Adam Bisnowaty, and veteran backups Marshall Newhouse and Will Beatty were let go.
Flowers, a 6-foot-6 mountain of a man, has yet to live up to the hype as a first-round pick (ninth overall in 2015). He struggled in his second season in the league last year, rating 57th out of 78 tackles by Pro Football Focus, and committed 12 penalties, the third most in the NFL. He looks noticeably lighter this spring than his listed weight of 329 pounds.
Pugh has raved about all the extra time Flowers put in showing up at the facility early. Flowers took boxing lessons to drop weight, as did Pugh and Hart, and the Giants believe it will help Flowers deal with the league’s many fast defensive ends.
“Both he and Bobby Hart have been committed to the work that they have put in throughout the winter, before we have even started the offseason program and the time they spent preparing themselves physically,” Sullivan said. “You can see that Ereck looks leaner. There is initial quickness that is there that is impressive.”
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Obviously, such improvements were needed. There is pedigree within this young group. Two first-round picks — Pugh and Flowers — a second-rounder in Richburg and a third-rounder (by Miami) in right guard John Jerry.
Yet the Giants were 29th in the NFL in rushing yards last year, averaging a paltry 88.3 yards per game, and just six rushing touchdowns, the worst in the league. The Giants scored just 19.0 points per game, the 27th-lowest figure in the NFL, a low number considering the weapons at Manning’s disposal. Pro Football Focus ranked the unit No. 20 in the league, and described Flowers and Hart as “the worst pair of tackles in the game.”
“Now it’s time for us to go up as a unit and be five guys that go out there and play and play our best football this year,” Pugh said. “That’s how we have to look at it. It can’t be a fragmented, just the tackles, just the guards, just the center; it has to be all five of us playing better and more a cohesive unit, and that’s what is going to make us successful.”