New York Giants: A Week 2 victory hinges on Ereck Flowers

Ereck Flowers has disappointed ever since he entered the league in 2015, but he needs to improve if the New York Giants want to get their first win of the season in Week 2.

After what many considered a sub par performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1, the New York Giants’ new-faced offensive line still looked like an area of weakness.

It goes without saying that good o-line play is key for a Giants team that has the potential to be an offensive juggernaut. The offense can only do so much when Eli Manning is constantly running for his life.

While the unit flashed it’s potential at times last Sunday, the offensive line needs to put things together quickly if New York wants to see success this season.

More from Empire Writes Back

Unfortunately, a lot of that hinges on the performance of right tackle Ereck Flowers.There’s no sugar-coating it. Flowers looked absolutely dreadful against Jacksonville.

The fourth-year pro single-handedly killed New York’s first drive of the game, backing the Giants up to the 4-yard line after committing a tripping penalty and a holding penalty (which negated a 34-yard gain) on first and second down, respectively.

Things didn’t get much better for New York’s right tackle as the afternoon went on. Flowers barely gave Eli Manning enough time to throw on passing downs, as he was constantly abused by Jacksonville’s stable of pass-rushers.

After Week 1 officially wrapped up, Flowers was rated the third-worst pass-blocking right tackle according to Pro Football Focus and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the two that graded out worse than he did were both mid-game injury substitutes.

It goes without saying the Flowers has to do better going forward, especially this upcoming weekend against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Boys have a sneaky good rotation of defensive ends who are excellent at getting to the quarterback in obvious passing situations. Unfortunately for Flowers, he may have to deal with the best of them all.

According to Dallas’ current depth chart, superstar pass-rusher Demarcus Lawrence is expected to start at left defensive end, opposite Flowers Sunday night.

Lawrence, who recorded an impressive 14.5 sacks in 2017, is one of the league’s most dangerous pass rushers and if Flowers isn’t up to the task, the Giants will be in for a long night.

To play Devil’s advocate, Flowers is still learning how to play right tackle at the professional level and there are bound to be some growing pains.

However, if his performance against the Jags is any indication, he’s well behind the learning curve at this point.

Next. Don’t let Darnold comparisons stop you from seeing what Saquon Barkley can do. dark

If Flowers wants to avoid the draft-bust label and the Wikipedia treatment, he needs to buckle down. Otherwise, he may soon be out of a job.

Home/New York Giants