Dan Graziano, senior NFL national reporter 9y

Twitter mailbag: What's with the O-line?

A great big thanks to all those of you who used the #nygmail hashtag on Twitter and submitted New York Giants questions for this week's mailbag. As I jet off to North Texas, I present the results of your efforts.

@DanGrazianoESPN: What I saw Sunday night was an aggressive defensive game plan by the Eagles to attack the Giants' offensive line and force them to win their one-on-one matchups, which they did not do. You're right that the Giants' line had a few good games in a row going into Week 6, but I still don't think it's a great line from a personnel standpoint. It was getting a lot of help from Eli Manning, who was releasing the ball as quickly as any quarterback in the league through the first five weeks, and from backs and tight ends. But starting running back Rashad Jennings was out for that game, and the dropoff from him to Andre Williams as a blocker is obvious. And Larry Donnell had a terrible game as a run-blocker, getting overwhelmed at the point of attack the way he did in the preseason. So with the Eagles pressuring them aggressively, and without the help they had been getting, Justin Pugh, Weston Richburg, John Jerry, J.D. Walton and Will Beatty had to fight physical battles against the likes of Fletcher Cox and DeMeco Ryans, and they were not up to the task. It's a blueprint for how to attack the Giants' line, though it's risky going forward, because if your defensive front doesn't win its physical battles, the Giants' receivers will get open quickly in short range and Manning will find them quickly. But if you can attack the Giants' line aggressively and win, you can pressure Manning and keep him from getting into his progression at all, and then you have the Giants' offense out of rhythm.

@DanGrazianoESPN: Long-term, of those three options, the best replacement for the injured Victor Cruz as the slot receiver is likely to be newcomer Kevin Ogletree, who has the most NFL experience in the position. Short-term -- as in, when the game starts Sunday -- the Giants are likely to use Preston Parker in there. And it's likely you'll see rookie Odell Beckham Jr. in there for an occasional play, though they still prefer Beckham on the outside, where he can stretch the field with his speed. But I think your question, along with the fact that there's no simple answer to it, speaks to the fact that it's going to be on the creativity of the coaching staff to find solutions at wide receiver. Rather than just leave Cruz in the slot and count on him to maximize his matchup on every play, the Giants are going to have to adjust personnel from game to game, and possibly from series to series, depending on matchups and what they want to run. Some plays will be better suited to Beckham in the slot. Some for Parker. You might even see Rueben Randle in there on a given play (he did work there some in training camp practices, just in case). It's not going to be a simple solution, I don't think, but Parker is likely to get the first shot, with Ogletree lurking as he learns the offense.

@DanGrazianoESPN: Of course not. Things change so drastically from week to week in this league, and the Giants are 3-3 -- a far sight better than the 0-6 record they were lugging around this time last year. You can't rule them out of playoff contention. If they beat Dallas on Sunday, they're 4-3 and right back in the division hunt. But all of that said, I never thought this was a playoff team to begin with, and I think the effect of the Philadelphia loss is a recalibration of expectations for this Giants team back to where they belong. They're not as bad as they looked Sunday, but I don't think they're necessarily as good as they looked during their three-game winning streak. They're a rebuilding team doing a lot of new stuff with a lot of new people in key positions, and teams like that are going to have ups and downs. As long as you see progress by the end of this season, I think as a Giants fan you'll have to call it a success. But especially with key players such as Cruz, Jennings and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie dealing with injuries and missing varying amounts of time, this is a team that generally finds itself outmanned most weeks and isn't likely to be able to go toe-to-toe with the top teams in the league. That was always true, but all the fun they had in that Houston/Washington/Atlanta run obscured it a bit. The Eagles, Cowboys and the three teams they face after the bye -- Colts, Seahawks and 49ers -- test them in far more severe ways, and when that happens I think they'll end up exposed as one of the league's middle-of-the-road teams, because that's where they are in their development.

@DanGrazianoESPN: These always get me. C.J. Spiller's been a huge disappointment in Buffalo, showing absolutely no reason to believe he'd offer an upgrade over the Giants' current group of running backs if they were to sign him for nothing. Add in what you'd likely have to give up in trade, and how can you believe it would be worth it? Jennings should be back from his injury within the next couple of weeks, and in the meantime Andre Williams and Peyton Hillis can patch it together. They're not Jennings, but they're the guys the Giants brought in as his backups, and so they have to be able to fill in while he's out. That's what backups do. This isn't baseball, where you'll see a lot of activity at the trade deadline. Teams generally value their draft picks more than they value some player another team is sick of and who'd have to learn a whole new scheme if they were to acquire him. Don't rule anything out, but just because a player is a known name and you think your team has a need at his position doesn't mean it's a move that makes sense. Or is realistic.

Thanks for all of the questions, though I can't believe I didn't get one on Will Hill. Enjoy your Saturday.

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