New York Giants nose tackle Dexter Lawrence dislocated his elbow in the team’s 27-20 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dallas Cowboys and was placed on injured reserve (IR) this week.
No Lawrence in the middle of the Giants’ defensive line is a scary proposition considering how teams have been shredding them in the running game even with Lawrence on the field.
Now comes the unenviable task of trying to backfill the big man’s role. Lawrence has played on 73 percent of the defensive snaps this season, the most of any of the Giants’ defensive linemen.
In addition to Lawrence being out, Rakeem Nunez-Roches (neck), who is second to Lawrence in playing time this year, is not practicing and backups D.J. Davidson, and DL Jordon Riley were limited on Wednesday.
Head coach Brian Daboll was asked what the plan is for the team’s final five games.
“You can’t replace Dexter,” he said. “I’d say we have a number of injuries on the defensive line right now, so we have a lot of young players that are going to have to, they’ve been working hard to continue to improve.
“(Andre Patterson) has done a nice job with them, but you’re never going to replace Dexter, and we’ll see where Nacho is, DJ, too. We’ve got some guys injured in that spot. These young guys are going to have to do a nice job of doing the best they can.”
The Giants’ depth chart is spotty at the moment. Daboll said Nacho could be “week-to-week,” leaving Davidson and Riley as the starters with rookie Elijah Chatman and recently signed Cory Durden as the others in the rotation.
Chatman was a training camp surprise as an undersized undrafted free agent out of SMU this summer and has been on the club all season. He’s been on the field, spelling the starters to the tune of 28 percent of the snaps. He’ll be seeing the field a lot more over the next month.
“Yeah, we’ve used him more, I’d say, in passing situations,” Daboll said. “Obviously, the last game we had to use him a bunch. He’s got quickness.
“A shorter guy, but quickness, powerful. He’s going to have to do a good job, both in the run and pass, as all those guys. Riley, we’ll see where he’s at, he’ll be limited. D.J. Davidson, then you’ve got guys on the practice squad, Casey (Rogers), (Elijah) Garcia, and Durden that we just signed. So, a lot of young guys that are going to have to step up.”
This will be another true test of the Giants’ roster flexibility this year. Hopefully, for them, they bend but don’t break here.
