Pro Football Focus Still Not Sold on Giants Offensive Line Additions
The popular analytics site rates the Giants’ offensive line as the league’s worst despite the free-agency additions.
Such is the case with the New York Giants offensive line, a unit that, despite having had a significant number of resources pumped into a historically bad group last season, is still considered the weakest unit by Pro Football Focus.
“Even after earning any team’s worst offensive line grade in 2023, the Giants did very little to improve their unit this offseason. The group recorded a 44.6 PFF grade last year and will hope a fully healthy Andrew Thomas and the additions of guard Jon Runyan (56.5 PFF grade in 2023) and tackle Jermaine Eluemunor (68.7) can provide a boost.”
We get it. Every year following free agency and the draft, in which offensive linemen are added, there is hope that the Giants’ offensive line, the bane of the team’s existence for several years, finally improves enough.
But for whatever reason—and last year, it was a result of injuries and coaching—that improvement never comes, leaving fans frustrated.
PFF seems to lean heavily on its subjective grades, but it’s fair to wonder if the grades consider the intangibles, such as knowing the blocking sequences and calls and the coaching.
In the latter case, Giants head coach Brian Daboll saw enough evidence to make a change at the position coach, swapping out Bobby Johnson for Carmen Bricillo in what might very well be the most under-the-radar off-season move to address the unit’s issues.
That said, it’s not hard to see why people have trepidation regarding this unit.
Other than for left tackle Andrew Thomas, this unit hasn’t shown much to get excited over—and we’re talking about the lack of development of premium draft picks such as right tackle Evan Neal (first round) and guard Joshua Ezeudu (third round).
So yes, until proven otherwise, the ranking is fair. But let’s hope that by the end of the season, the Giants’ offensive line will move away from being thought of as bottom dwellers.
