The revolving door that is the Giants offensive line swung around once again on Saturday, as the team cut Patrick Omameh, and coach Pat Shurmur confirmed that newly-claimed guard Jamon Brown will be ready to face the 49ers on Monday.
"It's always hard when you release a veteran, especially a guy like Pat _ probably one of my favorite people that I've met doing this," Shurmur said. "Sometimes it's about the player. Sometimes it's about the situation, the numbers, all that."
The Giants signed Omameh for three years, $15 million last March, but if there's one thing this season has taught this team, it's how to cut its losses. Ereck Flowers already experienced that, when he was cut last month, and now the offensive line _ the unit that Brown said most flourishes from consistency _ could see its ninth different starter on Monday.
Omameh, who was supposed to be part of general manager Dave Gettleman's plan to rebuild a shoddy O-line, was instead an early bust, and lost his starting job on Week 7. The Giants will get back about $3 million in cap space, and a $3.5 million dead money cap hit. Receiver/returner Quadree Henderson was promoted, taking Omameh's spot on the active roster.
"If you go back and look at last year (when he was with the Rams) we had the same five guys that started the season ending the season," Brown said. "(It's) a huge part of what we do up front because at the end of the day, our unit is unlike any other. It takes all five of us to be on the same page in order for us to thrive and flourish and too be able to execute it at a high level...it's huge but I think we've done a good job up to this point."
Brown, 6-4, 300 pounds, took some first-team reps this week at right guard, he said, and characterized the last few days as a "whirlwind." The Rams surprisingly waved him on October 30 and he was claimed by the Giants a day later. He's faced the 49ers plenty, "and what a better situation, this to be my first week and my first game" with the Giants, he said.
"It's been crazy," he said. "You're in one place, going through your normal work week and you get released, you get picked up, you're flying out, immediately after that, you get here (during the Giants bye week). As soon as you touch down, you're running around doing physicals, meeting the coaches, getting the playbook and you fly right back out to LA and you kind of enjoy those couple days and try to take a deep breath."
