The offensive line is young, says the general manager.
“And they have talent, and things take time,” Dave Gettleman, GM of the Giants, said Tuesday.
Well, the Giants offensive line isn’t that young if Kevin Zeitler, who turned 31 on Monday, starts right again and Nate Solder, who turns 33 next month, plays one of the attacking positions again after opting not to the 2020 season.
So maybe Zeitler and Solder won’t be part of this season’s plan.
“I don’t imply it at all,” Gettleman said.
The status of the offensive line is related to Gettleman as a smartphone for a teenager. He promised to fix it when he was hired in December 2017. Progress has been made and improvements are evident. Fixed? No way. Not quite yet.
Gettleman called his offensive line young because, as he explained, “when the center and the left guard and the left post are rookies, you’re basically young.” Thomas, was a rookie, center fielder Nick Gates was an inexperienced third-year player working at the center for the first time and left guard Shane Lemieux was a rookie who moved to starting lineup at the expense of Will Hernandez , who was essentially on the bench in the second half of the season.
The Giants will be younger on the line if Matt Peart moves. Peart, a 2020 third-round draft pick who left Connecticut, played in 11 games as a rookie, making a start and finished with 150 snapshots, or 14.8 percent of offensive attacks, often filling out a series or two for veteran Cam Fleming on the right.
Gettleman said “I’m, yes,” when asked if he would feel comfortable with Thomas and Peart, a pair of sophomores, as starters this season.
“When [Peart] he played, he played well, he played pretty damn, “Gettleman said.” At some point you have to let the little kids play. “
This could be a premonition situation for Solder. He is a cancer survivor and his young son is undergoing cancer treatment, which is why he chose not to participate in 2020 instead of playing amid a global pandemic and concerns about COVID-19. Solder is expected to have $ 16.5 million with the salary cap. Releasing it would save the Giants $ 6 million, but it would also cost $ 10.5 million dead.
The Giants still don’t know if Solder wants to continue his career. What seems certain is that it will not be listed at the current price.
“Look, I’m not going to speak for Nate,” head coach Joe Judge said. “I’ve talked to Nate and, to be honest, most of our conversations have had nothing to do with football. I’ve been talking really well with Nate since the end of the season, I just consulted him to find out how the free year went, how his family is doing, how his son is doing and how he’s going personally. I had a lot of conversations, I talked about football. … There are also other areas of our building that are in talks with Nate. When the time comes to address all of this, we will know. These things don’t all happen in one day and we’ll see where everything goes. “
Zeitler is a sturdy professional who rarely misses a moment, but has not been selected for a Pro Bowl in his nine-year career. He is the team’s most consistent offensive line player and is projected to have $ 14.5 million in the salary cap. Releasing him, which could happen, would save the Giants $ 12 million.
One way to mitigate Zeitler’s limit is to extend his contract, giving him prorated bonus money to reduce his 2021 maximum number. Gettleman doesn’t seem to believe this is a smart approach with any player.
“The goal of better managing the limit is to get flat contracts,” Gettleman said. “If a guy has a three-year deal for $ 45 million, he’d like to have a $ 15 million limit every year, that’s the goal. Once you start restructuring and renegotiating, you usually carry them in the back. “What you’re doing is kicking the can. It depends on the pain you want to treat. Some teams philosophically just say heck, they restructure and there are people who don’t. It’s a philosophical conversation, but it’s not a good place to get to it.” to constantly restructure and renegotiate “.