The New York Giants’ offensive line was best described as patchwork this season, as three opening day starters or heavily rotational players ended up missing significant time due to injury.
Center Nick Gates is one of those, as he played just two games before suffering a gruesome leg injury in the Week 2 loss to Washington that not only ended his season, but threatened his career at the time.
Gates still won’t give assurance that he’ll be back anytime soon, but he vows to be back eventually.
“I couldn't tell you. I'm still taking it day by day, but my plan is to get back on the field as fast as possible,” Gates said Monday, in his first media session since that injury. “I don't know if it's going to be this year or whatever, but just taking it day by day.”
Gates is doing well, now into the rehab process for the last couple months after his initial surgeries to fix a fractured leg that drew comparisons to Joe Theismann’s leg injury against the Giants at the outset. That rehab process, however, is the main focus, without worry about being ready for a specific point and time.
“I'm making good steps and good strides in my rehab, but I can't really tell you a specific timeline on when I'm going to be back or not,” Gates said. “I'm just taking it day by day, just trying to get better each day and just listening to what the trainers are saying about body and just doing that.”
The hardest part of the injury, Gates noted though, was that for the first couple months after the injury, he couldn’t be there to support his teammates.
“It didn’t feel good not being able to be out there going to go to war with the guys. It sucked being on the couch, Sundays were my toughest day of the week,” he said. “At first I really couldn’t do anything my first eight weeks – I was in bed most of the day. But the last couple weeks being in here, listening to the guys, I was trying to help with anything I could, be a guy they could talk to.”
Also frustrating was watching how poorly the Giants offense performed this season.
“It’s frustrating to watch us not be able to score points. If you can’t do that you’re not going to win games,” Gates said. “But we have the whole offseason to work towards next year, and hopefully we all get in here together and start working hard.”
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Gates moved from center to left guard in that Week 2 game after Shane Lemieux went down with what turned out to be a season-ending knee injury, the first of what turned out to be numerous shuffles among an injury-plagued line.
“We have some good players – I think Drew (Andrew Thomas) is a good left tackle, and I’m surprised he didn’t get more Pro Bowl votes with the way he played – but we definitely need to make some changes and add depth,” Gates said. “Especially after the way this year went. We have good building blocks and we’re heading in the right direction, we just need to play better.”
The Giants enter the offseason with Gates, Lemieux, and Matt Peart (ACL) coming of major injuries and four others – Will Hernandez, Nate Solder, Matt Skura, and Billy Price – now free agents, so remaking the offensive line will be a big priority.
If and when he does come back, Gates will possibly have yet another position coach, his fifth in the last three seasons. Hal Hunter was there in 2018-19 before being replaced by Marc Colombo, who was let go and replaced by Dave DeGuglielmo midway through 2020.
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The Giants hired Rob Sale from the University of Louisiana for 2021, but it’s heavily rumored that he is heading back to college, going to Florida to reunite with former U of L head coach (and new Gators boss) Billy Napier as his offensive coordinator.
“It’s definitely not the greatest when you have a rotating line of coaches, but it’s part of the business, and ultimately, we have to be accountable,” Gates said. “It doesn’t matter who is there, we have to take what they teach us to the field and put out a good product fans can be proud of.”
He’s hopeful, though, that amidst other uncertainty, that Joe Judge will continue to be his head coach.
“I like Joe as a coach and a leader; he does a good job holding us accountable and getting us on the right page,” Gates said. “He puts us in a good position to succeed, but we have to go out as players and execute and be consistent on the field.”
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