New York Giants 2024 Training Camp Preview: G Jon Runyan Jr.

What impact can Jon Runyan Jr. make for the New York Giants in 2024?

Sep 10, 2023; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Green Bay Packers guard Jon Runyan (76) and center Josh Myers (71) clear a path for running back Aaron Jones (33) during the third quarter of their regular season opening game at Soldier Field. / Mark Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Giants offensive line in 2023 was arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL. PFF had the Giants as the worst-graded pass-blocking team and the third-worst run-blocking team. That patchwork offensive line had 18 sacks allowed by their guards in 2023.

It was clear throughout the entire season last year that the Giants were playing with an offensive line that wasn’t made up of just players that were below-average starters, there were players that don’t belong on NFL active rosters. 

This offseason, the Giants put an added amount of emphasis on addressing how poor the line was by hiring Carmen Bricillo from the Las Vegas Raiders as their new offensive line coach and using a large portion of their available cap space to sign Jon Runyan Jr., Jermaine Eluemunor, Aaron Stinnie, Austin Schlottmann, and Matt Nelson.

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JON RUNYAN, Jr, G

Height: 6-4
Weight: 307
EXP: 5 Years
School: Michigan
How Acquired: FA-24

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2023 in Review

Runyan spent the 2023 season with the Green Bay Packers in the last year of his rookie contract after being a sixth-round pick in 2020. Through his 1,009 snaps played, he picked up a run-blocking grade of 53.2 with a pass-blocking grade of 62.4.

Runyan allowed just two sacks through the entire season including playoffs, both of which came in the first half of the season and one of which was given up to retired Rams defender Aaron Donald. Pressure-wise, Runyan gave up just 22 pressures on the year.

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Contract/Cap Info

Runyan was one of the best signings for the Giants during this offseason with a three-year contract worth $30 million, which sounds like a heavy contract for an interior offensive lineman but only on the surface. Runyan’s contract includes $17 million guaranteed, which gives the Giants some versatility.

One area where Giants general manager Joe Schoen has done a good job has been structuring contracts so that the team can get out of these deals early if they need to. Similarly to the Daniel Jones contract, the Giants can get out of Runyan’s contract after the second year without eating a crippling cap hit.

In 2024, Runyan will take up $6.5 million in cap space before that number climbs to $11.75 million in both 2025 and 2026.

Runyan is a virtual lock to make the Giants roster in 2024 regardless of his performance but financially he’s safe. If the Giants were to cut Runyan this offseason, they would eat a $12,000,000 dead cap penalty and not save any money.

Cutting Runyan in 2025 would clear up $3,500,000 in cap space but would still incur a dead cap hit of $8,250,000. After that second year, there would only be a dead cap hit of $2,500,000 while creating $9,250,000 in cap space.

2024 Preview

I’m very high on the possibility of Runyan making a major impact on the Giants in 2024. I have long expected that the Giants will shift more toward a gap-heavy run game in 2024 with the addition of Bricillo and the moves made on the offensive line. 

While Runyan played with the Packers for the first four years of his career and they are more wide zone-oriented, he’s struggled somewhat to be effective as a run-blocker in that offense. The reasoning that I suspect for his struggles is because of Runyan’s skillset not being a great fit for that style of play. 

In a gap-based run game like Runyan played in with the Michigan Wolverines, he should be able to find the success that helped him become an NFL Draft pick.

The bigger impact that I expect Runyan to make however will be in pass protection. The Giants pass protection was nothing short of horrendous in 2023 and a lot of the pressure allowed came from the interior, which is usually the area where it’s easier to mask deficiencies in pass protection.

Runyan’s success last season was far from an anomaly, as he’s spent much of his career as a fairly dominant pass protector on the interior. Returning starting center John Michael Schmitz may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of having Runyan at guard, as the interior of the line will be able to develop more chemistry and work off of one another.

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