New York Giants: Impact of Will Beatty’s injury

ByRyan Disdier|

It looks like 2014’s most-injured team, the New York Giants, are trying to win the dubious honor for a second-straight year. Jordan Raanan of NJ Advance Media reported that New York’s staring left tackle Will Beatty tore his pectoral muscle lifting weights. Beatty is expected to miss at five months.

An area that appeared to be fixed following the draft is now once again in flux. Ideally, the starting five for the Giants would have feature some combination of Beatty, Geoff Schwartz, Weston Richburg, Justin Pugh and rookie Ereck Flowers. Unfortunately, the G-Men will begin the season with question marks surrounding the unit.

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This isn’t necessarily unfamiliar territory for the Giants, though. New York was without starting guard Schwartz for the majority of last year, but the injury to Beatty is much more sever. This year, the Giants face such daunting pass rushers as Aldon Smith, Mario Williams, Jerry Hughes and Muhammad Wilkerson, so strong left tackle play is going to be paramount.

Beatty, although sometimes inconsistent, has started all 16 games for the past two years, and he’s been one of the lone constants on the offensive line. Even at 30 years of age, Beatty is still a capable left tackle, and the Giants will unquestionably miss his presence.

The injury to Beatty will likely force the Giants to play Flowers, whom the Giants selected with the ninth-overall pick, at left tackle sooner than they were hoping. Flowers, although incredibly athletic, is very raw and would likely struggle at left tackle. Many speculate that Flowers will be the future left tackle, but unfortunately, the future appears to be now.

However, the team could opt to start the season with Pugh at left tackle, as they wait for Flowers to get his feet wet in the NFL.

Another option would be to move Flowers to left tackle and Pugh to guard. That would give the Giants a reliable player on both sides of the line. That would also mean Marshall Newhouse would likely start at right tackle.

Newhouse, 26, was signed by the Giants in the offseason, and while he’s struggled in his career, he’s relatively familiar in the Giants’ offensive system. Newhouse was with Green Bay for the first four years of his career, which is where now-offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo came from.

Newhouse obviously isn’t the best tackle in the world, but there’s not a whole lot the Giants can do. Unfortunately, the Giants literally just missed the opportunity to sign former-Ram Joe Barksdale, as NFL.com’s Chris Wesseling reported Tuesday the San Diego Chargers reached a deal with Barksdale.

A third, perhaps more unlikely option, is that the Giants keep Flowers and Pugh at the tackle positions, move Weston Richburg back to guard — the second-year player started every game lat year at left guard — and start rookie Brett Jones at center.

Jones, who played in the CFL last year, is unknown and unheralded, but I think he could become a player similar to Shaun O’Hara, given the proper coaching.

In the midst of all of the uncertainties that now surround the Giants, one thing is certain: New York won’t break. The Giants always seem to lose at least one key player because of injury. In 2013 they were without David Wilson and last year they were without a host of starters and key contributors.

It will be very interesting to see which starting five the Giants plan on going with for week 1’s matchup in Dallas.

Next: New York Giants: Lack of cornerback depth will hurt team

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