The New York Giants have had one crazy bye week, to say the least. The Giants have made a major change on their coaching staff which also led to some serious drama and rumors surrounding the team and its head coach. The Gmen are also dealing with a small COVID-19 outbreak amongst their team, placing three more players on the reserve/COVID-19 list today.
Amongst those three players, one of them was a key offensive lineman. Rookie offensive tackle Matt Peart tested positive for COVID-19 and will go on the reserve/COVID-19 list, likely keeping him out of next Sunday’s game against the Bengals. The Giants have slowly but surely been working Peart into the lineup on Sundays. He has played a total of 107 snaps this season, rotating into both the left and right tackle positions, seeing limited playing time this regular season.
But Peart has been impressive in his small sample size. He seems to have a bright future ahead of him, as do many of the other young offensive linemen on the Giants’ roster. New York’s offensive line struggled greatly at the beginning of the season but has seemingly improved its play over the past couple of weeks.
But now, the team’s offensive line coach, Marc Colombo, has been fired, and there seem to be some reports indicating that the offensive linemen might not be pleased with this decision. On top of that, the Giants’ new offensive line coach, Dave DeGuglielmo, does not exactly have a reputation for being a likable guy. Maybe the Giants’ offensive line needs a change in coaching philosophy. But could this stark change lead to even more struggles up front?
The potential repercussions of this coaching change
According to reporter Michael Silver, there had been tensions surrounding Colombo and Joe Judge for weeks now. Art Stapleton confirmed this portion of Silver’s report, as both reporters mention a disagreement between Judge and Colombo regarding center Nick Gates’s technique.
Where Silver’s report differs from Stapleton’s and others’, though, is when he mentions the team’s reaction to this move. Silver reports that Judge’s personality has been “off-putting” to some and that Judge and his assistants that came with him from New England “have exuded an alarming aura of haughtiness.”
Art Stapleton responded to this portion of Silver’s report, saying it sounds “like sour grapes” and was “completely unrelated” to the Colombo firing.
Regardless, Silver makes a good point at the end of his report. Silver refers to this Colombo fiasco as an “open sore” and notes that the Giants’ offensive linemen are “unsure” what this sudden coaching change will mean. The linemen are wondering “whether they’ll have to relearn techniques on the fly” amongst other things, which is definitely a fair concern.
Could this whole situation lead to further struggles along the Giants’ offensive line? These young linemen have been coached one specific way since training camp began with Colombo as their coach in the summer. Since then, they have been practicing and learning Colombo’s way of offensive line play. Now, Dave DeGuglielmo will have to step in and try to correct the errors that Judge has seen from his offensive line in the 2020 season.
With so many of the Giants’ offensive linemen being young players, still learning the NFL game, it is fair to be concerned whether this sudden change will affect their growth and development. Losing Matt Peart to the reserve/COVID-19 list for the time being also does not improve the situation. Peart is a young, promising player that the Giants want to see more of, not less. Hopefully, he makes a quick and full recovery and can seamlessly rejoin the Giants as they welcome a new offensive line coach.