What's the Giants' worst case scenario along the offensive line?
The New York Giants made some major strides roster-wise this offseason, adding some key free agents and finally maximizing the most of their draft capital. One area in which they did not make changes was along the offensive line, the unit most critics point to as the culprit for the teams offensive woes. Gallery Top 16 rushing touchdown leaders in Giants' franchise history View 16 photos  The team is adamant the line will improve vastly in 2021, citing last year as one of transition with a new center and three rookies learning on the job. All of those enhancements at the skill positions wont matter much if quarterback Daniel Jones is harassed to the degree he was last season. Dan Duggan of The Athletic outlined what that could look like should the line become a liability and derails the offense.  If the Giants offensive line isnt good enough this season, there will be plenty of critics who can say, I told you so. The Giants had one of the worst offensive lines in the league last season and they subtracted their lone proven player, right guard Kevin Zeitler. No members of the current starting lineup have a track record of sustained above-average play. So it certainly wouldnt qualify as a surprise if the lines performance is subpar this season. Maybe the members of the 2020 draft class will make major strides. But its also possible that they could turn out like Hernandez, who has plateaued since showing promise as a rookie. Sale has never coached at this level, so theres no evidence that he can develop NFL players. The Giants showed in 2018 that a poor line can negate a dynamic group of skill players. Jones was sacked 45 times (fourth most in the league in 2020) and was hurried on 30.3 percent of his drop backs, the most of any regular NFL starter. The Giants have to clean that up. Nate Solder is coming back and Andrew Thomas showed improvement in the second half of last season, so theres some hope that the Giants can get better against edge rushes. But the edges arent the only weakness. The middle of the line was poor in pass protection as well. Much of it was caused by miscommunications of assignments. That also should be cleaned up now that Nick Gates has a year under his belt at center.