In the New York Giants game against the franchise with no name, Andrew Thomas was disciplined for being late to a meeting Saturday night. It resulted in 3rd round rookie OT Matt Peart starting in his place and out snapping the 4th overall pick 26 to 22. Joe Judge decided to deploy a weird strategy that rotated Peart and Thomas out at left tackle and Peart outplayed Thomas. It was the wrong move.
There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Thomas hasn’t struggled this season. He has allowed 31 pressures in 6 games and is on pace for an ungodly 82 pressures on the season (there’s no way he’ll be bad enough to actually reach that amount). He’s also been unimpressive as a run blocker. But the Giants can’t give up on Thomas yet. They can’t continue to deploy a strategy of rotating the left tackle spot out every other drive either. That cheats the development of Peart and Thomas.
While it’s a little more rare, it’s not totally unheard of for rookie tackles to struggle in year one and bounce back and have respected careers. Eagles RT Lane Johnson, who is widely regarded as one of the best tackles in football, struggled his rookie season. He allowed 60 pressures on 656 pass blocking snaps. A good portion of his struggles came early in year one and he was able to turn it around in year 2. Andrew Thomas could do the same. The Giants just need to be patient with Thomas.
The player the Giants hoped Thomas could be is still in there even after 6 rough games. If the Giants want to reward Peart, have him eat into Cam Fleming’s play time. In a lost season, we already know who Cam Fleming is as a player. Thomas needs the extra snaps and Joe Judge needs to make sure he gives them to him.
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