ORLANDO – John Mara has lost patience with the Giants’ annual offensive line problems, just like the team’s frustrated fans.
“You’re right, it’s ridiculous,” Mara said Monday. “And it’s a continuing source of frustration for me. It’s time to get it fixed. We invested a couple No. 1 draft picks in the offensive tackles, got a No. 2 draft pick playing center. Now we spent some money in free agency, a new offensive line coach. I expect us to be a hell of a lot better.”
It was imperative that GM Joe Schoen prioritize addressing the offensive line this offseason after the Giants allowed 85 sacks in 2023, the second most all-time by any NFL team. Pro Football Focus ranked the Giants dead last in pass blocking and 30th in run blocking.
Evan Neal, Josh Ezeudu and Marcus McKethan, all Schoen draft picks from 2022, played a large part in that failure. So did injuries. It also didn’t help that Tommy DeVito led the league in sack percentage (15.5%) for quarterbacks with more than 33 drop-backs.
DeVito was playing because both Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor got hurt.
“Let’s face it: for a while we couldn’t block anybody,” Mara said. “And Daniel was getting hit all the time.”
So far, Schoen has signed former Raiders tackle/guard Jermaine Eluemunor and former Packers guard Jon Runyan Jr. to headline a handful of O-line additions this spring.
He confirmed the Daily News’ reporting that Neal will remain at right tackle at least to start the 2024 offseason and ramp-up, and Eluemunor will begin at guard, although he has the flexibility to play both.
And he still has the NFL Draft coming up to get more prospects into the pipeline who hopefully can fill gaps and provide depth at the very least.
“That was certainly a priority going into this offseason was to get the offensive line fixed,” Mara said. “You can’t win in this league unless you have a good, productive, consistent offensive line – what we had years ago when we were winning. And we have to get back to that.
“I think we have the right pieces in there now,” Mara added. “We have a new offensive line coach. So we’ll see. But life in football starts on the offensive line. If you can’t block ’em, you’re not gonna win.”
BIG MONEY ON BURNS
Mara said he feels good about the club’s expensive investment in pass rusher Brian Burns.
“The opportunity was presented to Joe that maybe Carolina would be looking to move Burns,” Mara said. “And the opportunity to get that caliber of pass rusher and put him on the other side from Kayvon [Thibodeaux] was very appealing to us. Is it a lot of money? Yes it is. But I go back to when we were winning, we had all those pass rushers and were pretty tough to block. So Burns is not even 26 years old. To me he was a pretty appealing investment to make.”
