The New York Giants will be without starting left guard Will Hernandez on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after he was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
The good news is that Hernandez reportedly feels well and should return in relatively short order, but will miss his first-ever NFL snap in Week 8. In his absence, the Giants will turn to a rookie.
Although head coach Joe Judge avoided naming Hernandez’s replacement over the weekend, multiple reports now state that fifth-round pick Shane Lemieux will earn the start over practice squad reserve Chad Slade.
The expectation is rookie G Shane Lemieux will start in place of Will Hernandez, who is sidelined by COVID. This has a peripheral benefit, in that the Giants can use the opportunity to see if Lemieux is ready to start should they trade Kevin Zeitler. Trade deadline is Tuesday.
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) November 1, 2020
Tampa Bay has one of the most ferocious front-sevens in the #NFL, which will be Shane Lemieux's first opponent. I'm told per sources that the #Giants rookie will get his first start Monday night.
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardoNFL) November 1, 2020
Judge had previously acknowledged the plan was to slowly work Lemieux in similarly to what they’ve done with rookie tackle Matt Peart. So far this season, he’s logged just two offensive snaps.
“Shane has been doing a good job really improving for us throughout the season. He’s done a really good job in practice,” Judge told reporters. “We were planning on really working him in throughout the games anyway, to be honest with you, in terms of just like we kind of worked Matt Peart into games as well. We have confidence in Shane. He’ll be in the mix with different guys that may factor into that position. We’ll see where it goes by the end of the week and where everything leads going into Monday. We have confidence in Shane, I would expect him to play regardless of what the scenario is.
“Shane is definitely an aggressive player. He’s definitely got that bruiser mentality to it. He’s settling in a lot technically. He’s shown a lot of improvement throughout the year. We liked him from the jump. He’s definitely a guy that wants to get after it, wants to play physical, wants to play aggressive. He’s really made good adjustments to a lot of the movement schemes and also the speed of the game of how it comes to it. His communication inside has really improved throughout the year. With the centers and guards inside, that’s definitely a critical piece for everything they are going to do, because the multiples they’ll see inside. He’s really shown a lot of growth for us.”
If the Giants do wish to trade veteran Kevin Zeitler over the next 36 hours, a good showing by Lemieux against one of the NFL’s best front sevens would go a long way in easing their nerves.
