After a few weeks of concern over a small surgery to clean up New York Giants left tackle Nate Solder’s ankle, it appears he will be a full go for training camp. Going into his second-season with Big Blue, Solder is preparing to make a jump after having an average season last year.
Coming off multiple Super Bowl appearances to join the lowly Giants, adjusting to his new role and quarterback took a bit of time. Lingering injuries also hurt his performance, but overall he was exponentially better than Ereck Flowers. One of the reasons Solder struggled was due to the difference in dropbacks from Tom Brady to Eli Manning.
Where Brady takes a shorter drop back, Eli’s is further. This forced Nate to adapt and change his style, as he would normally allow edge rushers to beat him with speed around the edge and push them behind Brady, where he would navigate the pocket and step up. Manning dropping back further saw Solder push his assignment directly into the path of his new quarterback.
However, he quickly understood this problem and fixed it quickly.
How is Solder feeling?
“I feel great,†Solder said Wednesday, via quotes distributed by the team. “I haven’t played football in a while so we’ll see. That’s what camps all about, right?â€
It will certainly take a few weeks for the $62 million man to get back into football shape and regain his quality. Luckily, he has about a month and a half to refine his skill-set.