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Nate Solder inside the building is viewed far differently than Nate Solder outside the building. Within the Giants’ walls, Solder is respected as a towering athlete and soulful leader, a durable and reliable player whose on-field performance for some reason deteriorated badly in 2019. Fans were skeptical when the Giants in 2018 made Solder (at …
Nate Solder inside the building is viewed far differently than Nate Solder outside the building.
Within the Giants’ walls, Solder is respected as a towering athlete and soulful leader, a durable and reliable player whose on-field performance for some reason deteriorated badly in 2019.
Fans were skeptical when the Giants in 2018 made Solder (at the time) the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history and were not overly impressed with his work that first season in blue. Those same fans were nearly apoplectic watching Solder’s struggles last season, and many of them wanted the Giants to send him packing, wiping his exorbitant money off the salary cap.
The Giants never seriously considered doing that. Instead, they used the No. 4 pick in the draft to get Solder’s eventual replacement, Andrew Thomas. There will be open competition everywhere under new head coach Joe Judge, but the expectation is Solder and Thomas will be the starting offensive tackles in 2020.
Judge knows what he is getting with Solder, more so than with any other player on his roster, other than, perhaps, former Patriots special teams ace Nate Ebner. Solder got to New England in 2011 as a first-round pick. A year later, Judge arrived as the assistant special teams coach. They spent eight seasons together — plenty of time to forge a relationship and learn what makes one another tick.
“Yes, I believe in Nate Solder,’’ Judge told The Post recently. “I’m happy Nate Solder is here. I can’t wait to work with him on the field. Nate’s been a great leader for us, Nate’s working his butt off. I’m very excited to have Nate on the team.’’
If Judge had come in, studied Solder’s rough 2019 showing and determined the Giants were better off moving on from him, it would have happened — despite the financial ramifications. Jettisoning Solder, 32, with two years remaining on his contract would have lopped $10 million off the 2020 salary cap but left an unattractive $9.5 million in dead money.
Instead, the Giants move ahead with Solder. They will pay him $13 million in base salary and guaranteed bonuses this season, and the hope is he can reclaim the form that made him a solid left tackle. The Giants knew they overpaid (four years, $62 million) for a player who never made a single Pro Bowl, but this was the cost of doing business for the new front office, as it had to make up for the sins (Ereck Flowers) of the past regime.
Solder was the blind-side protector in Eli Manning’s final year as a full-time starter and in Daniel Jones’ first year. In 2018, working with Manning, Solder allowed seven sacks and 33 total pressures in 664 pass-block snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. In 2019, breaking in a rookie quarterback, in 684 pass-block snaps Solder allowed 11 sacks and 56 total pressures — the third-most sacks and most pressures given up in the league.
Certainly a chunk of this drop-off is solely on Solder. More than a sliver, though, can be traced back to the normal difficulties Jones, in his first season, encountered in the pocket — as far as getting the ball out of his hand and recognizing what was going on around him.
“People want to crap all over Nate Solder, [but] Nate Solder is a heck of a football player,’’ Shaun O’Hara, a former Giants center and currently an NFL Network analyst, told The Post. “He’s a damn good left tackle. You show me a left tackle who had a good year with a rookie quarterback. That doesn’t happen.
“[Solder] won a Super Bowl with the Patriots, he at one point was one of the five best left tackles in the league. That doesn’t happen without having some skill. Now, has he gotten beat a couple of times in the last few years? Yeah. The problem is when he’s gotten beat, they’ve been for sacks. I think Nate Solder is still a damn good football player.’’
General manager Dave Gettleman signed Solder to the exorbitant contract and admits, “Nate had a rough year. Nobody is denying that, and certainly he is not.’’
Rich Seubert, a starting guard on the 2007 Super Bowl team, is now a Giants season-ticket holder.
“I like Solder. He plays tough, he’s a good football player,” Seubert said. “Obviously we all want him to play better. He will, he’ll figure it out. Maybe the system wasn’t for him, maybe it will be better now.’’
In addition to breaking in a new quarterback, Solder also was tasked the past two seasons with mentoring a young left guard, Will Hernandez. Everyone should be better acclimated now. Not that Solder ever leaned on anything other than his own results to justify or explain away his struggles.
Teammates, of course, are supportive of one another, and within the front office there is an overwhelmingly genuine interest in seeing Solder regain his form. They appreciate what the towering, 6-foot-8 Solder contributes to their franchise. Since his arrival, he has started all 32 games and, despite an assortment of bumps and bruises, stayed on the field for 2,037 of a possible 2,094 offensive snaps. Now they need him to play significantly better than he did in 2019.
“I know Nate, I’ve known him for years,’’ Judge said. “I know what he’s capable of, and I know [offensive line coach] Marc Colombo is going to work his butt off with Nate, and I know Nate is going to work as hard as he can to be the best player he can. I’m excited to see him in the field.’’
