Evidence That The New York Giants’ Offensive Line Problems Stem From Coaching

The New York Giants‘ offensive line has been the team’s biggest problem for years now. The unit let up 47 sacks in 2018 and has already allowed 28 sacks in 2019, putting them on pace to allow 49 sacks on the season. The Giants are often criticized for not placing enough talent on the offensive line.

But this year, New York made sure to bring in two key pieces that should have solidified its offensive line as at least an average unit. So far, that has not been the outcome. The additions of Kevin Zeitler and Mike Remmers have not been enough to improve the Giants’ offensive line so far.

Every year, the Giants’ offensive line makes the same mistakes. Whether it be an offensive tackle not understanding how far the quarterback is dropping back, or the interior linemen not understanding how to pick up a stunt. These mistakes frequently occur, year after year. These repeated mistakes beg the essential question: is there a coaching problem?

Much of the “hot-seat” talk in New York has been centered around the Giants’ and Jets’ head coaches Pat Shurmur and Adam Gase. But maybe the conversation should be centered around a position coach. The Giants’ offensive line coach, Hal Hunter, should be on the hot seat.

Hal Hunter’s Career History

The Giants’ decision to hire Hal Hunter in 2018 was a bit of a confusing decision. Hal had been out of the league for a year after two “one-and-done” stints with the Indianapolis Colts, then the Cleveland Browns. As the Colts’ offensive line coach in 2015, he coached an average unit that allowed 37 sacks (ranked 17th). Still, Indianapolis was not entirely pleased with this outcome and decided to go a different direction in 2016.

Hal Hunter was then hired by the Cleveland Browns for the 2016 season in which he coached a historically bad offensive line. In 2016, the Browns’ offensive line allowed 66 sacks and 140 quarterback hits. Hal was fired after that season and did not have a job in the NFL in 2017. The Giants then hired them to help fix their atrocious offensive line in 2018.

So far, the offensive line has not been fixed. It does not even look close to being fixed. And there is evidence that the reason it is not fixed could be directly coordinated to a poor coaching-job.

Coachable Mistakes That The Giants Continue To Make

Below I will provide a few video clips and breakdowns of some of the mistakes that the Giants’ offensive line has been making. These are mistakes that should be coached out but have not been. These mistakes also happen more than once per game and were happening last season, as well.

Here is a breakdown by Bobby Skinner of the Talkin’ Giants podcast. Bobby breaks down an error that the Giants’ offensive line makes frequently. On this play, the Giants got confused by the stunt that the Cowboys’ defense ran. They failed to recognize it and did not pick it up, allowing their rookie quarterback to be pressured from three different angles and hit by two defenders:

Here is another example. Nate Solder, a nine-year veteran, is seen demonstrating bad footwork and letting the pressure get right to Daniel Jones. This is a simple technique issue Solder has been struggling with all year. It should be coached out by now, but Giants linemen have been making these same mistakes repeatedly this season.

Here are a couple more clips where the Giants’ offensive line is simply not on the same page:

Yes, the Giants’ offensive line lacks talent. But they are also making the same, fixable mistakes over and over. Offensive line coach Hal Hunter has not done his job and has not coached these mistakes out of his unit’s players. At the very least, the offensive line should be on the same page, but they are not.

While it is highly unlikely that the Giants would make a change at this position during the 2019 season, they should strongly consider making a change in the offseason.