He remembers giving up four sacks in a Sunday night game in Philadelphia in his second NFL season and a day later being unable to get out of his car because he was weeping and filled with self-doubt.
“Thinking my career was over,’’ Justin Pugh told The Post on Monday. “My confidence was just crushed and I had to slowly bring it back and continue to battle.’’
He was the 24-year-old right tackle for the Giants in 2014, a former first-round pick struggling to gain a foothold and live up to the immense expectations of the New York/New Jersey fan base. His team had just been shut out, 27-0, and he was a big reason for the offensive showing on offense. If this sounds more than vaguely familiar to what is going on right now with the Giants, that is because it truly is.
“I was Evan Neal,’’ Pugh said.
That statement takes some getting used to. Neal, 22, is in the eye of the storm after he functioned at a subpar level in the season-opening, 40-0, no-show loss to the Cowboys. It was not all on Neal, of course, but he is supposed to be one of the young building blocks for the Joe Schoen/Brian Daboll regime. If he is not the answer at right tackle, it is going to set the entire operation back, because swinging and missing on the No. 7 overall pick in an NFL draft can take years from which to recover.
Neal was one of the main culprits on a shaky line that allowed Daniel Jones to get sacked seven times by the rampaging Cowboys. Most of the damage was inflicted on the right side, where Neal and veteran guard Mark Glowinski were dominated, an ugly and disturbing reminder that without protection and time to throw, Jones is not going to be able to convince anyone he is worth his $40 million-a-year price tag.
From his home in the Phoenix area, Pugh watched the carnage and — through his shock and dismay — came to the conclusion that what looked so broken is in fact fixable.
“They’re in there like ‘Here we go again,’ and that’s the worst thing that can happen for an offensive line,’’ Pugh said. “Those guys can still play. Right now on the right side you have confidence issues with those guys and they got to find it because they’re both damn good players.’’
Pugh knows all about it. The Giants took him out of Syracuse with the No. 19 overall pick in 2013 and moved him from left tackle to right tackle — the same move Neal was asked to make in his NFL acclimation, with Andrew Thomas entrenched at left tackle. Pugh ended up playing right tackle and left guard in his five up-and-down years with the Giants before signing a five-year, $44.7 million deal with the Cardinals, proving those early struggles did not define him.
“I had to dig down deep and pull myself out of it,’’ Pugh said. “That’s exactly what Glowinski and Evan Neal are going through, and it’s exactly what I went through. I feel for those guys because I was in those shoes. I would love to have that conversation, you can fight through that and come out the other side because I’ve had a 10-year career and played good football since then.’’
Pugh, 33, would like to have that conversation as a teammate. His desire is to return to the field and play, once again, for the Giants. He is nearly all the way back from the ACL surgery he had back in October and figures he needs two or three weeks as a ramp-up before he would be good to go. He sees himself as a left guard and said he has interest from bona fide playoff contenders in both conferences.
“I think I bring a lot to the table in terms of my play and what I do off the field,’’ Pugh said. “The fact I even have to sell myself gets me a little upset. Turn on the film and you can watch it yourself. Talk to any team I’ve been on and they’ll tell you what type of man I am.
“I want to win football games. I’m not in Year 10 just to be a mentor, either. I fit a lot of the Giants needs and they fit a lot of my needs, but at the same time we have to be realistic where we’re at.
“I’m not doing this for the money. I’m not asking for what I was getting early on in my career. I’m doing this to chase a ring and that’s something that has to be a realistic expectation as well.’’
After the Giants got blasted by 40 points, why the heck does Pugh view them as a playoff contender?
“I think that was an anomaly,’’ Pugh said. “The Giants have all the pieces.’’
The pieces along the offensive line became unglued in Game 1. Time for the repair kit.
NEWS CREDIT
