Giants O-line is Bringing Nasty Back

The Giants offensive line is planning to bring a new attitude to a football field near you.

"Frenchie," "Dirtbag," "Bob," "Big Ev," "Glow," and "A.T." are bringing Nasty Back.

No, that's not the name of the next big musical hit, and the names mentioned aren't members of a boy band. They are members of the New York Giants offensive line, and they're looking to bring a lot of nastiness to an offensive line unit that finished 30th out of 32 teams in Pro Football Focus's year-end rankings last year.

Head coach Brian Daboll has entrusted offensive line coach Bobby Johnson to work the same magic he did with Buffalo's offensive line with the Giants' unit, which includes veterans and rookies alike.

And Johnson, tasked with the management of bringing nasty back, has a very clear vision of what he expects from guys like guard Shane "Frenchie" Lemieux, center Jon "Dirtbag" Feliciano, guard Ben "Bob" Brederson, tackle Evan "Big Ev" Neal, guard Mark "Glow" Glowinski, tackle Andrew "A.T." Thomas, and the rest of the group.

"Tough, smart, dependable," Johnson said earlier this spring. "I want guys that are tough--and I don't mean physically tough; I mean mentally tough. If you're mentally tough, you'll be physically tough.

"I want guys who are smart. I don't care what they got on the Wonderlic--are they football smart? Can they process the information? Can they solve problems? And are they dependable? Am I getting the same thing out of them every day when they walk into the building? I don't want to guess."

Johnson's tone-setting criteria have laid the foundation for the expectations, and the players are embracing the chance to fulfill that request.

"We have a great group of guys," said Lemieux. "The rookies all coming in are great dudes, man. They’re learning. They're like sponges right now, and it's really cool to see."

The Giants offensive linemen, all soft-spoken and somewhat reserved off the field, have yet to get into pads or engage in contact, both currently prohibited by CBA rules until training camp.

But the line members say that sense of nastiness they want to bring to the field is already starting to fester.

"I think that fits the mold of what offensive linemen should be who are tone setters," Lemieux said when asked about the call to be nasty on the field. "In this offense, the offensive line, we're tone setters, and that's the way we should play, and that's the way we're coached."

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The current linemen are well aware of the recent history of the line, both the struggles and the glory days, the latter in which the starting quintet of David Diehl, Chris Snee, Shaun O'Hara, Rich Seubert, and Kareem McKenzie was one of the biggest strengths of the team during its 2007 Super Bowl season.

Ben Brederson, Evan Neal and O-line coach Bobby Johnson

Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Giants offensive linemen prepare to go through drills.

John Jones-USA TODAY Sports

Evan Neal (No. 70) during a blocking drill.

John Jones-USA TODAY Sports

"In this organization, we've had good offensive lines in the past," Lemieux said. "All these guys that we as offensive linemen now and the past couple of years we've felt we need to live up to those standards and those guys to continue to play the way that they left it.

"We have a great deal of respect for them. We need to hold ourselves to a standard of that kind of offensive line play when they were winning Super Bowls."

The Giants' plan to bring nasty to their offensive line play begins with training camp, where they will do battle not only with each other to win roster spots but against defensive coordinator Wink Martindale's defense, which aspires to be bullies as well.

"We brought in guys that are feisty, hungry guys that want to win and want to play hard," said Glowinski.

"We're doing our best to learn one another, compete with one another, gel as much as we can, spend as much time as we can in the lunch, breakfast room, and everything. We just want to understand one another, but we have young talent, and we also have older guys that we've come across one another in the past, so we understand those guys." 

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