In the first taste of navigating without Andrew Thomas in 2024, the results went just about as expected for a Giants group losing its staple on the offensive line.
And it could lead to more experimenting.
Joshua Ezeudu, who earned the start and his first 58 snaps at left tackle this season, allowed two sacks and three pressures.
The line, as a unit, allowed eight sacks in their 28-3 loss to the Eagles.
And with the Giants searching for any sort of answer or spark or consistency to save a sinking season, head coach Brian Daboll didn’t commit to starting Ezeudu in Thomas’ spot for a second consecutive week during his press conference Monday.
“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’ve 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.”
If Thomas’ five-year extension in July 2023 didn’t illustrate his significance to the Giants, they got a glimpse of what could happen without his presence last season — when he missed Weeks 2-8 with a hamstring injury and Daboll reshuffled his line.
Ezeudu started five of those games before getting injured.
Justin Pugh, signed off the couch, was then thrust into a starting spot for the other two, before shifting back to left guard for nearly all of his snaps the rest of the year once Thomas returned.
With Ezeudu still Thomas’ backup, the Giants turned to the third-year lineman when Thomas’ 2024 season ended following foot surgery last week.
Early in the first quarter Sunday, though, Josh Sweat tore around the left side of the line, won his matchup with Ezeudu and dropped Daniel Jones to force an early punt.
Then, later in the quarter, Nolan Smith Jr. pushed Ezeudu back until he reached Jones and dragged him to the ground.
Ezeudu told reporters after the game that he “started off horrible.” He was overthinking. Self-doubting. He knew that he needed to be better and could be better.
But former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, now an NFL analyst, said during a Monday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” that the Giants are “playing a guy at left tackle who shouldn’t be at left tackle.”
It could get complicated to replace Ezeudu, though.
The Giants do have options who have played left tackle before.
Jermaine Eluemunor, who has logged all 474 of his snaps at right tackle in 2024 and said last week he’d prefer to stay at that spot, started two games at left tackle for the Raiders last year and one in 2022, along with other cameos throughout his career, per Pro Football Focus.
Chris Hubbard, signed off the 49ers’ practice squad following Thomas’ injury, played exclusively at right tackle last season but has spent time on the left side during an 11-year NFL career.
And then there’s Evan Neal, the former first-round pick in 2022 expected to become the Giants right tackle of the future who instead hasn’t seen the field all season.
When asked why he didn’t play Neal near the end of Sunday’s blowout after subbing in other replacements, Daboll said that he “just wanted to go with the guys that we had.”
The Giants’ other lineman on their 53-man roster with past NFL experience — Greg Van Roten, Jon Runyan and Aaron Stinnie — have almost exclusively played guard in their careers, outside of a random snap or two at tackle, and wouldn’t be options.
But unlike last year, the Giants won’t get Thomas back during the season.
They can’t just bide time and bridge the gap until their franchise tackle returns.
They’ll need to figure out a solution to keep Jones upright in the pocket and protect his blindside, and that — at least based on Daboll’s reaction Monday — could require more shuffling.
“We had one person in that hasn’t been in,” Daboll said of the offensive line. “I’d say the communication process was good. [The Eagles] didn’t do a whole lot defensively, but the techniques and things like that, it wasn’t just one person or two people. It was kinda spread out, and everybody had their hand in it. There were some good things.
“Again, at the end of the day, our job is to score points, and we gotta work to continue to do that.”