There is no doubt about it: The New York Giants, with close to 58 million in cap space and a top ten draft pick, are definitely in the drivers seat for 2016. Among the changes all along the defensive side of the ball, the GMEN need to consider a key one on offense.
They need to move last year’s 1st round draft pick and starting left tackle Ereck Flowers to right tackle.
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Flowers came into the NFL with several question marks that draft scouts and experts felt he needed to answer in his rookie year. Lance Zierlein, one of NFL.com’s draft experts, called Ereck Flowers “an ascending mauler in the run game”, and “Mean and highly competitive. Wants to dominate and gets surly when beaten on a snap.”.
But the problem is that he also mentioned just how much Flowers struggled in pass protection. It was bad enough that he projected Flowers as possibly a better guard in the NFL than tackle, even though Flowers had played both tackle positions in college at Miami.
While Zierlein’s opinion is only one of many, and Flowers has only played one year, the results in terms of pass blocking for Eli Manning were less than spectacular. In fact, Pro Football Focus listed Flowers as the worst overall tackle statistically last year with a -44.1 overall grade. He struggled mightily with pass protection, where he was responsible for the most QB hurries (47) and the second most QB hits (17).
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Now, part of this is most likely due to the fact that an NFL left tackle generally faces the opposing teams best pass rusher every game, a tall order for any rookie to handle. Flowers had his good moments too, and showed a lot of promise for 2016. The question is, would he be better suited to play right tackle for New York?
Most of the Giants offensive line was a major issue in 2015. Justin Pugh’s move to guard could be considered a smart move, and Weston Richburg looks to be a real star in the making at center. But Marshall Newhouse was horrible at right tackle (albeit better than Flowers at LT per PFF.com), and injuries beseeched Geoff Schwartz to the point that the Giants parted ways with him.
With Newhouse at best a spot fill-in, Flowers moving to right tackle would likely shore up the position and put less pressure on him to block the best pass rushers each week. It would obviously create a hole at left tackle, but that’s where free agency could come into play.
Buffalo’s Cordy Glenn, if he isn’t franchised, could be a big target, as he’s coming off a good season and is still young. Another name that the Giants could get relatively cheap, and who played well in limited starts for Pittsburgh, is Kelvin Beachum. There are several options out there that the Giants could explore, and they all likely played much better at left tackle last season compared to Flowers.
The Giants could stick with Flowers on the left side, but if he gives up the same number of hits and hurries next season he could really put Eli Manning’s consecutive games started streak in jeopardy. Losing Manning to injury would deep six any chances of the team making the playoffs in 2016. They need to strongly consider improving their offensive line at every spot, but any line starts with the left tackle spot with a right-handed QB.
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Flowers is still young and can improve; Can the Giants, most importantly G.M. Jerry Reese, survive if he can’t do that in 2016?