The New York Giants are still working through the loss of All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas for the season.
Their first pass was to place third-year lineman Joshua Ezeudu, a former third-round pick out of North Carolina who is known for his versatility, at left tackle which is not his strongest position.
On Monday, head coach Brian Daboll would not totally commit to Ezeudu, who settled down in the game after a rough start, in Week 8.
Ezeudu played all 58 offensive snaps in Sunday’s loss. He had an 82.1% pass block win rate, 36th of 49 tackles this week. He had a 73.3% run block win rate. That’s 39th of 63 qualifiers, per ESPN’s Jordan Raanan.
“Yeah, we’ll have that discussion here,” Daboll said. “We’ve watched the tape. We’re not there yet. I thought that early on there was a couple plays in there. One off of a jam and another one that could have been better.
“I think he settled in. It was his first time playing. So, there’s some things he did better as the game went on and made some improvements. And we’ll see where we’re at here.”
The Giants’ next game is against the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road on Monday night. That means facing a pass rush led by T.J. Watt.
Many thought the Giants would slide right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor to left tackle and insert Evan Neal in on the right side. That plan appeared to be low on Daboll’s list indicating their continuing lack of confidence in Neal.
The Giants could very well move off of Ezeudu but based on his play in the second half of Sunday’s game, he could very well be getting settled in.
