Emphasizing offensive line named Giants’ best offseason decision

Heading into this offseason, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen had quite a long to-do list. At the top of the list was fixing his leaky offensive line, which had just allowed the most sacks (85) in a single season in the NFL since 1986.

The Giants sustained multiple injuries to key personnel last season which caused them to use backups and free agent pickups for most of the year.

The interior of the line was like a turnstile, giving the offense very little stability and rendering them punchless.

In addition, starting tackles Andrew Thomas and Evan Neal and rookie center John Michael Schmitz all missed time with significant injuries, which sent the Giants scrambling for replacements.

Head coach Brian Daboll does not want to go through that exercise again. He fired unit coach Bobby Johnson and replaced him with Carmen Bricillo.

Then, in free agency this March, Schoen went on a shopping spree that yielded several veteran offensive linemen who have both starting experience and versatility.

Trevor Sikkema of Pro Football Focus believes this was Schoen’s best offseason decision.

This is more of a “best strategy.” While the Giants didn’t add a massive name in free agency along their offensive line, they brought in Jermaine Eluemunor, Jon Runyan, Aaron Stinnie and Austin Schlottmann. The sum of those four signals new life and some needed flexibility to improve the unit from 2023 after the Giants fielded the lowest-graded offensive line in the league (47.2).

The transformation of the line is not quite complete, however, but in his three offseasons, Schoen has put his stamp on the unit. Only the All-Pro Thomas precedes his tenure.

Schoen can no longer blame anyone but himself going forward for the offensive line failures.