Sorry New York Giants fans, but it looks as if the Jason Garrett era will continue on for at least one more season in East Rutherford. Yet, that’s not to say there won’t be some coaching turnover on the offensive side of the football next season, as the G-Men are once again in the market for an offensive line coach.
New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy reported on Tuesday that the team will be parting ways with the previous occupant of the job, Dave DeGuglielmo, as the in-season hire of the 17-year NFL assistant was only on an interim basis.
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Giants Reportedly Wanted DeGuglielmo Back
While DeGuglielmo and the Giants ultimately appear destined to go their separate ways, that doesn’t mean the organization wouldn’t have preferred to extend his stint in New York. In fact, according to The Athletic’s Dan Duggan that appears to be the exact case in this scenario, as the beat reporter added extra context to the spilt between both parties.
“Source says the Giants wanted DeGuglielmo back but the sides couldn’t reach an agreement on a new deal,” Duggan tweeted on Wednesday.
DeGuglielmo was initially brought aboard during the Giants’ bye week this season after the sudden firing of then-offensive line coach Marc Colombo. Per SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano, the original plan was for the team to add DeGuglielmo in a consultant role. However, when head coach Joe Judge informed Colombo of this, things went sideways, a heated argument ensued and Colombo was subsequently fired.
DeGuglielmo’s exit becomes the second vacancy within the Giants’ coaching staff. Former outside linebacker coach Bret Bielema left the team late in the season to take the head coaching job at the University of Illinois.
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More Instability for an Unstable Position
The Giants’ offense struggled as a whole last season. They were nearly equally bad in both the pass and run game, finishing in the bottom half of both categories and owning the league’s second-to-last ranked total offense.
Not much went well for the unit in 2020. Saquon Barkley’s season ended after just five quarters of play. Quarterback Daniel Jones failed to take a second-year leap. Tight end Evan Engram’s issues with drops only strengthened. On the outside, wide receiver Darius Slayton proved widely inconsistent for a player many expected to take a firm grip of the team’s wide receiver one job.
However, no specific position group proved more of a disappointment and a glaring issue for the Giants this past season than the offensive line. First-round pick Andrew Thomas endured a horrendous start to his NFL campaign. While he was able to somewhat turn things around in the latter part of the year, up-and-down play across the line limited New York’s offensive output.
For their lackluster effort, the Giants’ offensive line checked in at No. 31 in Pro Football Focus’ final 2020 offensive line rankings:
31. NEW YORK GIANTS
With one year in the books, the Giants can’t be feeling good about their decision to take Andrew Thomas as the first tackle off the board in last year’s draft, given the season he had compared to the tackles selected after him. Thomas allowed 57 pressures at left tackle this season, 14 more than any other player at the position. He was the only player at the position to be charged with 10 sacks allowed, as well.
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