New York Giants: The Ereck Flowers Era Is Finally Over

There’s a lot of controversial subjects when it comes to the New York Giants. With one of the largest fanbases in the league, there’s bound to be disagreements on a number of things. Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr., and the team’s drafting strategy are all popular debate subjects. But at some points, those debates seemed rare compared to the ones around offensive tackle Ereck Flowers.

However, it looks like those debates will be no more. After a run that started in 2015, when the Giants made their top ten selection in the NFL Draft, Flowers is being waived from the team after a trade partner couldn’t be found. It’s not often that a player becomes as disliked within their own fanbase as Flowers was at some points, especially for a player that hasn’t gotten into off the field trouble or clashed publicly with the fans.

But even at his worst points, there were always some who argued for Flowers to get more time. The organization itself was even in this camp. They wanted to give Flowers as many chances as possible to pan out, there’s no other explanation for why he entered this season as the starter at right tackle. Even after a terrible performance against the Jaguars, where some even went as far as to say that Flowers’ bad blocking and penalty calls blew the game for the Giants, he wasn’t benched.

The New York Giants tried to give Ereck Flowers time. Now, midway through his fourth season, that time has run out. In the battle between the cynics and optimists that frequent fan forums, it seems the cynics have won. The team finally took the course of action that any have suggested for more than a year now. But it’s not a debate that anyone will be happy about winning.

After all, it means that the ninth pick in the 2015 Draft was effectively wasted. The Giants could have had Todd Gurley. Or Melvin Gordon, or Marcus Peters. Or they could even have drafted a player like Trae Waynes, who isn’t as big of a star as the former names but is at least still playing with the team that drafted him, and producing. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and every team strikes out a number of times for each home run they hit in the draft.

The Giants struck out big time with the Ereck Flowers pick, and we’re seeing that now. But that’s not the most important thing. The important thing is that all of us, both the optimistic and pessimistic sets of fans, can take a deep breath and be happy that this entire Ereck Flowers saga is finally over.

Now, it’s time to hope for a quick recovery and good play from Chad Wheeler. There’s no turning back now… There’s not much depth at right tackle with Flowers leaving, and the job completely belongs to Wheeler for the foreseeable future now. Let’s hope that the former undrafted free agent is up to the task.