The New York Giants have been dealing with injuries along the offensive line all season but are beginning to get healthy.
On Sunday against the Houston Texans, five lineman played on all 69 offensive snaps: tackles Andrew Thomas and Tyre Phillips, guards Joshua Ezeudu and Mark Glowinski and center Jon Feliciano.
Three other lineman saw action in jumbo packages. Nick Gates played 13 snaps, and Matt Peart and Jack Anderson played five each.
Head coach Brian Daboll spoke on Monday about the unit finally rounding out, although starting right tackle Evan Neal (knee) was out for the second straight game.
“Depth at that position — I think we talked about this last week — depth at that position is always critical. And I would say it’s critical in November and December, and I think some of our guys are getting healthy,” he told reporters.
Two other linemen, guards Shane Lemieux and Ben Bredeson, are getting closer to returning.
“We’ll see where Shane is this week. I think Ben is getting a little bit better. Evan’s getting better. So, it’s good to be as healthy as we can be. (We’re) certainly not there yet, but (we’re) moving in that direction,” Daboll said.
“And that’s the foundation of an offense is the offensive line play. Five guys or sometimes six, sometimes seven, sometimes eight working together as one. I think our guys up front have improved from a week-to-week basis. I think they understand what we’re trying to get done. It’s never going to be perfect. You’re playing against some really good defensive linemen, and things happen. But I think we’re making progress, and it’s good to have as many of them out there as we can.”
The Giants released tackle Devery Hamilton on Monday, so they currently have 10 lineman once Lemieux and Bredeson return.
