Offensive Tackle Jermaine Eluemunor
Q: Heading out to a place that's known for being loud, one of the loudest buildings in the league. I'm curious for you guys, from your perspective, is that talked about as a (offensive) line right off the bat this week, knowing what's installed, maybe more silent counts, kind of getting that together? I know you're probably working on that every week, but the idea is it's a big difference when you go to a place like that, I would think.
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: Yeah, typically away games you are dependent on silent count. I don't think there's ever been an away game in my career, unless you're up big in the fourth quarter, that you don't use silent count for an away game. It's something that you're used to. Luckily, we had two games straight going silent count so we're more adjusted to it now.
Q: Did you spend a lot of time this weekend watching football, watching NFL games?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: Yeah. Saturday, I got to hang out with the family a lot, so I didn't really watch college football and then yesterday, it was raining too much so we just chilled inside, watching a couple of games just to see what other teams are doing and just watch other people play.
Q: Is it helpful to you to watch these games and, every team is different, and just think, 'Okay, they're doing this. Maybe I can find something here that can maybe help me or help our team.'?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: No, I don't think you can try to make judgments off of other teams like that. I think that you just got to figure out what you need to do better as a team and as a person and as a player and go from there. You can't watch other teams and try to pick up little things that they're doing that you can do also because their team is completely different to how our team is built. No team in the NFL is built like the Giants. No team is built like the (Detroit) Lions, the Seattle Seahawks. They're all built differently to fulfill the needs that they want and obviously need and how they want to play in their style of playing, things like that.
Q: I think your answer to this is going to be yes. So, if it is, I want to know why. Do you think your offense is close to scoring a lot more points?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: Yeah, for sure. If you watch our games, we've moved the ball in every single game. Obviously, the (Minnesota) Vikings game we could have moved it a little bit better, but we were still moving the ball in that game. If you watch the Vikings now, a lot of teams struggle against that defense. I feel like we played a pretty good game against them, just weren't clean enough and didn't execute enough. But then you watch the other three games, we've moved the ball up and down the field on all three of those teams and all three of those teams have really good defenses. So, I think that we're really close and I think that we'll see that this week.
Q: Just a question about having that mini bye week, the extra time. What are the advantages and disadvantages of that in terms of obviously getting your body right and getting the rest, but also staying sharp? Just as an example, the Jets were coming off their best week of the year on a Thursday night and came out on Sunday with the extra time, and in this particular example, were not sharp at all. I'm curious what your take is on that.
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: I think the biggest thing is it gives you time to self-reflect and see the things that you're doing better than other teams and things that you're not doing better than other teams. It gives you an opportunity to really dive into things you can do better and things you need to work on. A lot of times getting a little break like that can be good for teams that really need to hone in on certain things and really need to get better in certain areas of their team. So, I can't speak on how that went for the Jets, but I definitely think that will be beneficial for us. It will help us really dive into those little things and get that corrected for Seattle.
Q: One of the things coming into the Dallas game that everybody was pointing to Dallas was that they were struggling stopping the run. What did they do differently that prevented you from running or what didn't you do to run?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: I think we just didn't execute as an offensive line how we needed to, like we did in the last two games. It was just little things where guys took turns not doing the right thing. Like me, there was two, three plays I could have done a better job on. And I'm sure there's other guys that feel the same way. Dallas, they have a pretty good defense. They're really fast at the ball and they have a bunch of young guys that are pretty good. But I think it was more so what we did more than what it was that they did and so we'll improve those things this week and be ready for Seattle.
Q: Your line has gotten a lot of help from the tight ends this year. Do you feel that you're now at the point where maybe you can free them up to go out more, give (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) some more options?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: Do you mean in the run game or the pass game?
Q: Pass game…
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: They haven't really chipped that much this year, if I'm being honest with you. It's more so they've been in the run game. But pass game has really just been really five on five and running backs picking up blitzers.
Q: The analytics sites grade the Giants as a very high pass blocking offensive line and not so well in the run game. I know (tackle) Andrew Thomas always talks about, 'The run game is where an offensive line can make a difference.' Is that something that is a fair assessment? Are you guys excelling in pass protection and need to get better in run blocking?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: Obviously. I think that pass blocking, we're doing our jobs and in run blocking we need to do a lot better. So, we're working on that this week.
Q: Pass protection here has been an issue for a long, long, long, long, long time. Why do you think that this group has come together so quickly when it's not a group that has years of chemistry together? Why do you think pass protection has come together?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: I think everyone on the o-line just cares and it's a veteran group. (Tackle) AT (Andrew Thomas) has been the league for six years now, (guard Jon) Runyan (Jr.) is going on five, (center John Michael) Schmitz (Jr.) is going on two, but he's an older guy so he's more experienced and he's more intelligent than a lot of younger guys in the same class as him. Then GV, (guard Greg Van Roten) has been in the league for a while, he's 34 years old and he's real smart and intelligent. And obviously, I have a lot of experience also. Experience can play a key factor in that but, also, we just really care about keeping (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) upright. We know the cleaner we keep him, the more confident he's going to be in the pocket and the more he'll be able to do what we know he can do. He'll be able to trust us more. We know that's a big thing for him, creating that trust with him and giving him the time he needs. When it comes to the run game, we just need to execute better and hone in on the little things and be better mentally.
Q: I was just hoping you could expand on that. That was what I was going to ask is. There obviously has to be a trust there. Do you feel like that's gained as the last couple of weeks went on? And is that why he seems to be playing a little bit better than Week 1 when you guys were all new to each other?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: I think the one thing people don't look at is Week 1, that was his first game coming off a huge injury. I don't think people look at that. Last year, obviously I can't speak on that because I wasn't here, but things may not have went how he wanted to. He obviously was taking more hits than he would have liked. This year, we know that we have to keep him clean and keep him upright. Which is true with every single quarterback in the NFL, if you keep them clean and you keep them upright then they're going to be able to do their job and execute and play the ball that they like to play and do their job and ball out. So, we know that with DJ (Daniel Jones), if we keep him clean then that will help grow his confidence and his trust in us that he can stand in the pocket and go through his reads and deliver the ball and keep doing his thing. If you watch the last three weeks, he's really been doing his thing. That's because he's starting to trust us more and more. That means a lot for us because we're going out there and doing everything we can to keep him clean. So, we're going to keep doing that, keep building his trust in us and keep building his confidence.
Q: You brought up the experience of the offensive line. I'm curious how different the situation is when you have a line that has experience. I know (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.) is maybe not the most experienced in the middle, but the other four guys are veterans. How much different does that make the situation when you have so much experience on your line?
JERMAINE ELUEMUNOR: I think that offensive line is one of those positions in the NFL where it's like wine. It's better over age instead of drinking the wine that's just made, if you have one that's aged a lot then that tends to taste better. That's kind of like offensive line where being a young guy in the NFL on the offensive line is hard because the speed is different, the techniques are different and then also the defensive ends and the defensive tackles, they're a lot faster than in college. They're a lot more technical and they're a lot smarter. That's why you sometimes see the younger guys struggle a lot because they're not used to what they're going against. In the NFL, the older you are on the offensive line, like I said, it can be beneficial for you because you're used to going against certain guys and you're used to the speed of the game. Bullets flying all over the place, all the plays that you got to know, knowing what the defensive line is going to do in front of you, how their positioning is going to affect how you're going to run the ball or throw the ball and little aspects like that. I think that the more you see certain defenses and certain players, the better it can be for you. So, that's why it's good for (John Michael) Schmitz (Jr.) because he's around (Jon) Runyan (Jr.) and GVR (Greg Van Roten) and they're really experienced. Then me and AT (Andrew Thomas) can just help him as well. But that's why I feel like we're having some success this year on the offensive line because we've all been around a lot of different offenses, and we've been in the league for a while now. Obviously, it can be better in the run game, which it will be.
