Matt Gono signed by Giants in first creative move to improve offensive line
Atlanta Falcons tackle Matt Gono (73) looks to the sideline prior to the NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans on October 6, 2019 at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX. Credit: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images/Icon Sportswire
Get used to Googling these newest Giants.
Chances are even the most ardent fans of the NFL will need some help to flush out the backstories, learn about the careers, and form cursory opinions on the players the Giants will be adding to their roster in the next few weeks. Still over the salary cap with a week until the deadline to get there, the team is not in a financial position to be making moves that involve well-known entities. They will almost certainly be focusing on players such as Matt Gono, the 25-year-old offensive lineman recently released by the Falcons with four career starts who sat out the entire 2021 season on PUP recovering from shoulder surgery.
The Giants agreed to a one-year deal with Gono on Wednesday.
"We’ll do what we can in free agency, even if it’s VSBs [veteran salary benefit deals], one-year prove-it deals, we can do those," general manager Joe Schoen said last week at the Combine in Indianapolis. "There are going to be ways to fill holes in the roster. Guys that are hungry, maybe they were given a raw deal and didn’t live up to their draft status, or whatever. I think this will be an attractive place to come and compete for a job."
Gono is exactly that type of player, plucked from the scrap heap of the NFL. At 6-4 and 305 pounds he can play guard or tackle and could even contend for a starting job on the Giants’ absurdly thin line as it currently stands. Schoen and coach Brian Daboll both noted last week that the team had only five healthy offensive linemen on its 2022 roster moving into the start of the league year. Gono at least gives them the ability to run jumbo packages with a sixth.
Gono entered the NFL in 2018 as an undrafted player from Wesley College in Dover, Delaware, and made the Falcons’ final roster but was inactive for all but one game that season. He played in 21 games with those four starts and was part of the Falcons’ plans last offseason when they used a second-round restricted free agency tender on him. Then he wound up missing the season recovering from the surgery and was released in January. He visited the Giants as a free agent in February and came back this week to pass his physical and sign the deal.
On the day Schoen was introduced as general manager he was asked about rebuilding the offensive line.
"You’ve got to get better players," he said. "We’ve got to look wherever we can, whether it’s free agency — and again, we probably won’t have a lot of [financial] resources there, but that’s where the pro department makes their money. Whether it’s VSB deals, finding guys through the draft . . . we’re going to have to find a way. That’s what we’re here for. We’ve got to find solutions. We can all talk about what the problems are, but our job is to find solutions."
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
