Joe Schoen Says He's "Comfortable" With Offensive Line Status

But should he be?

It's that time of year when fans and media alike want to know how the team they're invested in might be thinking about the draft.

So for about 20 or so minutes, members of the New York Giants media tried to get as many clues as possible out of general manager Joe Schoen only to be met with, for the most part, polite resistance, even when certain situations are as plain as day.

Like the Giants' offensive line. Reporters asked Schoen if he was "comfortable" with where the offensive line, particularly the interior that last year was both injury ravaged and which struggled, currently stands.

"I think we have 14 offensive linemen under contract right now, so yeah," he said when asked if he was comfortable with the current group's status.  

By now, if you don't know, "comfortable" is not a word many general managers--and head coaches, for that matter--use when describing their feelings about a roster, and with good reason.

There is no such thing as being "comfortable" because addressing a roster's needs in a single off-season is virtually impossible.

That said, don't be surprised if what Schoen said here is a classic smokescreen, and for proof of that, let's look at who is under contract and the state of the offensive line.

According to Spotrac, the Giants have 15 offensive linemen under contract, five being offensive tackles. That leaves the team with ten interior offensive linemen--and not a pure center among them.

Eleven offensive linemen under contract are only signed through this year--ten if you consider that Andrew Thomas will likely have his option year exercised by next month's deadline.

Logic dictates that the Giants will not re-sign all 11 of those whose contracts are approaching the end. Furthermore, logic dictates that many of the guys under contract this year with whom Schoen is "comfortable" are stop-gap solutions.

We're, of course, looking at the center position, where, again, the Giants have a bunch of natural guards--Ben Bredeson, Shane Lemieux, and JC Hasenauer-- in line to compete for the role.

And not for nothing, but with the Giants having committed to Daniel Jones for at least the next two years, isn't it high time they give him stability regarding his signal caller?

You'd think so, right? I asked Jones, who has had a different starting center every year of his career, about that earlier this week and the challenges of starting from square one with a new center.

"Yeah, I think it just takes a lot of time. It takes time in the film room, in the classroom talking, getting on the same page with our pre-snap IDs and protections, and in the run game, too," Jones said.

"Then time on the field in kind of a more game-like situation where you’re going through it, and you're communicating and working on the center, quarterback exchange, and all those pieces there. It just takes time."

Things might very well end up to where the centers the Giants do like don't fall to them, and they do end up rolling with what they have--there's no rule after all that says they can't extend the contracts of guys signed through this season.

But in a league where continuity on the offensive line is so desired yet admittedly rare if the Giants believe that they're good with what they have for the long term, then what's next, the proposed sale of a bridge in Brooklyn? 

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