Matt Citak: It was an encouraging start to the season for the Giants. Numerous of the team’s offseason acquisitions played well, but more importantly, the offense as a unit put together a strong performance. It didn’t matter which quarterback was under center, as all four signal-callers led the offense on scoring drives. The Giants topped the 30-point mark, something that has not been too frequent of an occurrence over the last few years. A major reason for the offense’s success in the preseason opener was the production of the big guys up front.
While many pundits circled the offensive line as the team’s biggest question mark heading into the season, the unit got the 2025 campaign off to a strong start. Between Russell Wilson, Jaxson Dart, Jameis Winston and Tommy DeVito, Giants quarterbacks attempted 51 passes against the Bills. The group completed 35 of those attempts, good for a 68.6 completion percentage, for 317 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions, which earned the group an overall passer rating of 104.8. But you can’t talk about the quarterbacks’ success without mentioning the fact that despite dropping back 51 times, the quarterbacks did not get sacked a single time on Saturday. You heard that right – not a single sack. It wasn’t like the Bills weren’t playing their starters, either. The O-line held up against Buffalo’s starters in the first quarter, and continued that success throughout the game as the second and third team defenses came onto the field. After the game, the Giants quarterbacks made sure to heap some praise to the guys protecting them.
“I thought the O-line did a great job,” Wilson said. “The ones kept space, some really good players on the defensive line for them. They did a good job keeping space for me. Receivers got open quickly in an on-time manner. That’s all part of it as well. They have great confidence in our offensive line. They go against the best guys in the world every day, and that makes us better too… We got guys with depth coming off the bench too that have great experience and great talent. I think we just got a lot of great confidence. I think Carm’s (Bricillo) a great teacher in the game. They create that space for us, allows us to make a lot of throws.”
“I was really happy with how our O-line played,” Dart added. “I don’t think that we had a sack all game, if I’m right. They played amazing and I was really happy with the operation.”
Since a big theme of the day was the performance of the rookies, let’s touch on fifth-round pick Marcus Mbow, who was a factor in the line’s success against the Bills. The 22-year-old, whose versatility was part of the reason why the Giants drafted him, spent time at both tackle positions on Saturday and looked good on both sides.
“We were talking at halftime like it’s been kind of quiet over there on the right side. It seems like Mbow is doing a good job,” general manager Joe Schoen said on the broadcast. “We’ll have to watch the film, but he’s done a good job thus far. When we don’t recognize them, you don’t hear their name, that’s typically a good thing at the tackle position.”