New York Giants: Adam Bisnowaty will not be the next Dave Diehl
New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese compared sixth-round draft pick Adam Bisnowaty to two-time Super Bowl winner Dave Diehl — will he bring the same to the field?
It’s pretty ironic that offensive lineman Adam Bisnowaty will be wearing No. 66 to the New York Giants’ two-day, rookie minicamp this weekend, just days after Jerry Reese compared him to David Diehl, per CBS NY. Which leads to the million-dollar question: will Bisnowaty, in fact, be the next Diehl?
While it is way too early to predict anything since he has not even stepped on the field yet, the answer is definitively no. And there are (at least) three reasons as to why.
The first of those is injuries and games played. In his four years at Pitt, Bisnowaty only played one full season. According to NFL.com, he missed four games as a redshirt freshman due to his back and one game in each of the following two years because of his ankle. Diehl, on the other hand, started all 16 games his rookie season and missed ONLY 12 games in his 11-year career.
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Can Bisnowaty accomplish a similar feat to that of Diehl? Absolutely! Is that a realistic thought? Absolutely not.
On top of the injuries, though, agility is another area where Bisnowaty is lacking. David Diehl’s quickness and agility allowed him to be the versatile player that Ernie Accorsi raved about in 2003. He spent time at left tackle, left guard, right tackle and right guard in his 11 years spent in the NFL due to that athleticism.
On the other hand, according to NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein, Bisnowaty’s athleticism decreased last year at Pitt. Whether or not it related to his past injuries does not matter — natural physical decline is no better than decline due to injury. A decline is a decline. Sure, Bisnowaty can avoid injury for his whole professional career. It is just very unlikely based on his history.
Finally, we get to the most simple, yet most pressing reason as to why the comparison seems a bit off based: blocking ability. At Pitt, Bisnowaty struggled with both pass and run protection, with his numbers regressing against the run game, per Pro Football Focus.
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Knowing that, picture Bisnowaty trying to protect Eli’s blindside against Von Miller this year. Scary, isn’t it? Zierlein actually believes that this will result in him moving — and staying — on the right side of the line.
Diehl did not enter the league as a perfect specimen either; he needed to increase his physicality against the run game. But increasing physicality and regressing are on two different spectrums.
Let me stress one ongoing theme throughout this comparison/dissection: anything is possible. All Giants fans who have watched Eli Manning get crushed the past few years would be ecstatic if Reese’s comparison comes to fruition. Diehl even said himself the other day, when speaking of linemen Ereck Flowers and Bobby Hart, that acclimating into the position takes time, per nj.com:
"“You can really see that that transition for offensive lineman coming from college to the pros, it’s taking a little bit of time. I think those are two guys (Flowers and Hart) with the experience that they’ve had, they’ve got a lot of work ahead of them, but I think they’re on the right path.”"
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But while it would be lovely for Adam Bisnowaty to be the second-coming of Dave Diehl, it just is not looking realistic at this point in time.