The Giants made left tackle Nate Solder the highest-paid blocker in the league when they signed him as a free agent this offseason and that contract came with some high expectations.
The team needed to be much better on the offensive line and Solder was expected to be the player that lifted the entire group to better things once they hit the field in 2018. The reality didn’t live up to the hype as the line may have been even worse than last year while the Giants were going 1-7 over the first half of the season.
“I think it was a little bit of a set up in terms of the way it was all portrayed as ‘This is the answer to all the problems,’” Solder said, via Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com. “I never knew that because I’ve always worked hard and I’ve always tried to get better. I know what it was. Now people inside of this building start to understand what it is, too: That it’s never perfect. You are always working toward it and there are no superhuman people out there. We’re all doing the best we can.”
The Giants found more success up front once they jettisoned right tackle Ereck Flowers and acquired Jamon Brown to play right guard, but the line remains a work in progress as they head into 2019. One thing that will definitely be different is Solder’s ranking on the list of the top-paid linemen. Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan leapfrogged him in terms of average annual salary, so that bar will be slightly lower in the second year of his four-year deal.
