Injuries have been a major factor for the New York Giants this season, and that trend is continuing as two more players are added to the injured reserve. That duo of players includes one of the pivotal starters on the offensive line, second year tackle Andrew Thomas.
Thomas has been placed on the injured reserve along with C.J. Board, and according to league rules will miss a minimum of three games before being eligible to return to the active roster.
C.J. Board, on the other hand, won’t have a chance to return this season. His injury, a broken arm, is longer term in scope and won’t be healed soon enough to make a comeback.
Thomas should come back this season, but that doesn’t mean the foot injury that he’s dealing with is a light one. The injury was sustained to the same foot that Thomas had surgery on in the offseason, and it’s possible that this season’s injury is connected to the previous one.
The second year left tackle, who has been much improved this season, was playing a key role for the offensive line before being taken out by injury.
His starting presence was a major factor during a season where the Giants have been notoriously thin along the offensive line.
The team was rushing to add depth to the position group during training camp, but that goal was hardly accomplished and more blows were dealt to the Giants after the season started. Injuries to Nick Gates and Shane Lemieux left the Giants banged up on the O-line even before Thomas’ injury, but the situation is now worse than before as another starter is out.
The Giants have had reasonable success this season improvising and coming up with on-the-fly solutions for this part of the roster. With a starting tackle out for at least three weeks, it seems like they’ll have to keep that trend up.