Giants hope Raiders' Carmen Bricillo can fix offensive line

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants haven't been able to build a stable offensive line over the past decade. It's not for a lack of trying.

They have dipped continuously into the draft (a league-high five top-100 picks in the past four drafts), dabbled at the top of free agency and even tried to develop talent internally. Nothing has worked.

Coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen hired Carmen Bricillo from the Las Vegas Raiders last week as the seventh offensive line coach in the past 12 years for the Giants.

Of all the jobs that are open for the Giants this winter (and there are plenty of them, including defensive coordinator), the first to be filled was perhaps the biggest need. Bricillo takes over a group brimming with high draft picks but with generally poor results.

New York's offensive line finished this season among the bottom 10 teams for the sixth time in seven years with a 53.4% pass block win rate.

Bricillo will have to fix what predecessor Bobby Johnson couldn't. The Giants fired Johnson after the disastrous season that was derailed originally by the offensive line. The job starts with extracting every last bit out of the talent already in-house, namely 2023 second-round center John Michael Schmitz, 2022 first-round pick Evan Neal, third-round pick Joshua Ezeudu and fifth-round selection Marcus McKethan.

"Sometimes you get the ready-made product through free agency, or you bring in a young player that you expect to develop and improve, and we've seen that at some positions and at some positions we haven't," Schoen said at the Giants' end-of-season news conference. "I think that'll be, as [Daboll] looks for a new offensive line coach, I think history of developing players will be something we'll definitely hit on."

Bricillo has some of that on his résumé. He wasn't a favorite of players in Las Vegas, according to multiple sources. There were questions about his coaching techniques, and the Raiders didn't exactly put up a fight to retain his services, given his connection to coach Josh McDaniels, who was fired Oct. 31.

But it's hard to argue with the results.

Bricillo got the most out of a line this season that featured standout left tackle Kolton Miller and veterans Andre James, Jermaine Eluemunor and Greg Van Roten, plus young guard Dylan Parham, who has developed into a quality player under Bricillo after being a third-round pick in 2022.

"That is one of my core philosophies as far as your goal should be constant improvement," Bricillo explained last year. "I know as a coach I'm always trying to get myself better, whatever it may be. I think you expect that of yourself, especially at our position just because the nature of the position is such a developmental one. You never have it. The skill set that is required to do the position well are not natural. So you have to work at them and develop them. It's never done."

With the Giants, the work is really just beginning. The only constant for the Giants these days is left tackle Andrew Thomas.

That is why fixing the offensive line is a top priority for the Giants. They believe Bricillo can do what Johnson, Rob Sale, Dave DeGuglielmo, Marc Colombo, Hal Hunter and Pat Flaherty couldn't during the past dozen years.

The job begins with trying to develop from within. If the Giants can get something out of Neal, Ezeudu or McKethan, it will support and possibly expedite the rebuild.

"Yeah, it'll be big years for those guys," Schoen said. "I mean, you're going into Year 3, and unfortunately -- McKethan was healthy ... the third week of camp, I think, was when he started to practice [off a torn ACL], so he missed a valuable part of camp. But unfortunately, Josh has been injured two years in a row, so yeah, I mean it's a big offseason for those guys ... it's a big year, third year, you've got to show something."

It's a big third year for everyone, including Daboll and Schoen. The Giants went in the wrong direction over the past year. It's going to be hard to reverse course if they don't get the offensive line right.