Pro Football Focus ranks the Giants’ offensive line 14th in the NFL

The New York Giants have sunk a tremendous amount of resources into their offensive line over the last two seasons. The Giants (temporarily) made Nate Solder the highest paid lineman in the NFL, signed Patrick Omameh to a three-year, $15 million contract, drafted Will Hernandez at the top of the second round of the 2018 NFL draft, and traded top EDGE rusher Olivier Vernon to the Cleveland Browns for RG Kevin Zeitler to replace Omameh.

For the amount the Giants have invested in their line, it should be one of the best in the league?

According to Pro Football Focus’ recent offensive line rankings, they’re in the middle of the pack at 14th in the NFL after three games.

Highest-Graded Offensive Lineman: G Will Hernandez, 74.0

All the resources thrown at this unit are finally starting to pay off. The Giants now look like they have one of the best guard tandems in the NFL as Will Hernandez (2) and Kevin Zeitler (5) have combined to allow only seven pressures so far this season.

Raptor’s Thoughts

I might have agreed after week one, but after watching (and re-watching) weeks two and three against the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively, this feels like a pretty generous ranking.

While the Giants were able to rack up more than 100 yards on the ground against Buffalo, the bulk of that came on a couple long runs, and the down-to-down consistency wasn’t there. Against Tampa, Barkley managed just 10 yards on 8 carries before exiting the game at half time. On the game, the Giants’ top two runners were QB Daniel Jones with 28 yards and WR Sterling Shepard with 21 yards.

But also both Eli Manning and Daniel Jones were under heavy pressure the last two weeks. Per NFL NextGenStats, which uses technology sewn into uniforms to monitor player position on the field, the Giants’ quarterback was operating from a cramped, crowded, dirty pocket in both games.

At least in my view, the Giants’ offensive line has struggled these last two weeks and they just have not been good enough. The bad news is that they will continue to face dangerous defensive fronts for the remainder of the year. The good news is that there is still plenty of time for them to pick up there level of play over the coming weeks.