When John Harbaugh said he wants big players, he meant it.<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 head coach brought his largest Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman to New York on Wednesday, securing 6-8, 370-pound right guard Daniel Faalele<\/a> on a one-year contract.<\/p>\n Faalele, 26, pronounced fah-ah-LAY-lay, becomes the second offensive lineman to sign a cheap, short-term contract with the Giants<\/a> in the last few days.<\/p>\n Amid the chaos of Monday\u2019s Dexter Lawrence trade request<\/a>, Harbaugh also signed interior lineman Lucas Patrick, 32, a 6-3, 313-pound journeyman who has played all three interior offensive line positions for three different teams the past three years.<\/p>\n Neither Faalele nor Patrick is a plug and play signing. They both will compete for roles on the inside of Harbaugh\u2019s offensive line, but they should not be viewed as solutions.<\/p>\n Faalele graded 42nd out of 57 guards who played at least 50% of the NFL season\u2019s full snaps, per Pro Football Focus. He is a road grader who can eliminate bodies in his path, but his misses are whiffs that blow up plays.<\/p>\n Patrick started at right guard for the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 of last season but injured his calf 16 snaps in and didn\u2019t play much the rest of the season. He played a lot of left guard for the New Orleans Saints in 2024 after serving as the Chicago Bears\u2019 starting center in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the offensive line is like our team, it\u2019s a work in progress,\u201d Harbaugh said at the NFL owners\u2019 meetings in Phoenix. \u201cThe offensive line and defensive line, that\u2019s where games are won and lost. That\u2019s where it starts. We\u2019ve got to try to build the best offensive line and defensive line in football. That\u2019s gotta be our goal.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a one-year proposition, maybe it\u2019s not. We\u2019re gonna find out,\u201d the coach added. \u201cBut we\u2019re gonna sure try. We\u2019ve got work to do there. We still have free agency available to us. We still have the draft, and we have really good players.\u201d<\/p>\n Shopping in the bargain bin for interior offensive lineman indicates two things: the Giants didn\u2019t have the money to compete for top guards on the free agent market \u2014 \u201cyou can overpay, but you can\u2019t afford it a lot of times,\u201d Harbaugh said in Arizona \u2014 and they\u2019re probably still eyeing a draft pick at guard in late April.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re also building for the long term,\u201d Harbaugh noted.<\/p>\n That could happen as high as the Giants\u2019 No. 5 overall pick.<\/p>\n Trevor Sikkema, a leading NFL Draft analyst and co-host of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast<\/a>, said this week on Talkin\u2019 Ball with Pat Leonard<\/a> that he could see the Giants picking Utah offensive tackle Spencer Fano in the first round.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there was a top tier offensive lineman in this draft that I thought was a top 5 player in this class, I\u2019d be taking him at No. 5,\u201d Sikkema said. \u201cThe closest one I have to that is Spencer Fano, an offensive tackle but honestly a versatile offensive lineman who I think can play all five positions at a high level in the NFL.<\/p>\n