New York Giants Offensive Line Ranked Near The Middle By PFF

Oct 7, 2018; Charlotte, NC, USA; New York Giants offensive guard Will Hernandez (71) blocks against Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Kyle Love (93) at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

The offensive line will be one of the primary points of interest for New York Giants fans going into training camp – The line is going to look different than it did last year, with multiple new additions, most notably Mike Remmers at right tackle and Kevin Zeitler at offensive guard. It looks like the line is going to be an improvement from the lineup that featured Ereck Flowers as a starter, but with the group of players untested together, there’s no telling just how the Giants will perform.

Last season, after all, also had some buzz around that are early and the actual results couldn’t hold up to the hype. It’s reasonable to be cautious going into this season when it comes to estimating the team’s play on the offensive line, and so far, it looks like that’s how the experts in the media are approaching the subject.

Pro Football Focus ranked the Giants 18th out of the 32 NFL teams in their offensive line rankings, which definitely isn’t the best in the league but also isn’t one of the worst, either. A step up considering the Giants arguably had the worst offensive line in the league at the start of last year, before small improvements could be made as the season progressed. Here’s what they had to say:

It wasn’t necessarily cheap, but the Giants acquired the best pass-protecting guard in the NFL from a season ago. Kevin Zeitler allowed all of 11 pressures in 2018 and will pair nicely with second-year guard Will Hernandez, who finished his rookie year with a very respectable pass-blocking grade of 73.1. Left tackle Nate Solder is coming off an above-average year as a pass-blocker, while center Jon Halapio could be a surprise candidate for a breakout season in 2019 — he began last year as the Giants’ starter before going down with an injury, but in his 116 snaps, he didn’t allow a single pressure, despite playing almost 50 pass-blocking snaps against the Jaguars and their array of pass-rushing weapons in Week 1.

The offensive line will have to block well for both Eli Manning and Saquon Barkley for the Giants to have much of a chance of being a winning team this year, but so far, most players around the team have been confident in their ability. We’ll see during training camp and the preseason in the coming weeks whether or not that confidence was well placed.