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[UPDATE: 3/14, 7:20 A.M. ET]
The Giants could be finalists in the Nate Solder sweepstakes.
One free agent to watch today: #Patriots LT Nate Solder. As of last night, it sounded like #Giants or #Texans… and there wasn’t a lot of optimism that he’d return to New England.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 14, 2018
With Andrew Norwell headed to Jacksonville, the New York Giants need to move on to other plans and other players.
Albert Breer of the MMQB is reporting that those plans might include New England Patriots left tackle Nate Solder.
Another team in on Patriots OT Nate Solder: The New York Giants. After losing out on Andrew Norwell, their search for offensive line help continues. Pats will have a battle to hold on to Tom Brady's left tackle.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 13, 2018
So far there is no word on what a potential contract Solder — who will be 30 years old at the start of the season — would get. After watching Norwell receive a five year contract that averages $13.3 million per year and a year after a 35 year old Andrew Whitworth netted an average of $11.250 million per year, Solder likely wouldn’t come cheap.
It is also questionable whether Solder would provide any significant upgrade (particularly for the money) over Ereck Flowers, who will be just 24 at the start of the season. Solder started the 2017 season poorly and improved toward the end of the season. And while Flowers had a disastrous outing in Week 2 against Ziggy Ansah, he rebounded to allow just 3 sacks in the remaining 14 games and had the longest streak of consecutive pass protection snaps without a sack among offensive tackles.
Regardless of what happens with Solder, the Giants do still seem to be looking at options to add offensive linemen in free agency after missing out on their primary target.
Keep checking back as we hear more about the 2018 Free Agency.