J.C. Davis, Giants O-Line Win PFF's Week 2 Preseason Award

Pro Football Focus named the Giants' offensive line its Offensive Line of the Week for the second week of the preseason, Giants.com reported Wednesday. PFF's Gordon McGuinness explained the pick in its Preseason Week 2 awards roundup, published Aug. 25: "The Giants' offensive line surrendered four pressures in this game, but none of them came from the five players who started it. J.C. Davis played 81 snaps at left tackle and didn't give up a pressure from 46 pass-blocking snaps."

Davis, a sixth-round rookie out of Illinois, started at left tackle in the Giants' 26-3 win over Miami on Aug. 22, as GiantsGator reported in its recap of Harbaugh's first win as head coach. Giants.com's Matt Citak reported the next five highest-graded Giants offensive players in that game were Aaron Stinnie, Marcus Mbow, Lucas Patrick, Jon Runyan and John Michael Schmitz — a mix of backups and returning starters. The line also ran for 136 yards on 33 non-kneel-down carries, a 4.1-yard average, with two touchdowns, per Giants.com.

Who played left tackle — and who didn't

Only two regular starters played against Miami: left guard Jon Runyan and center John Michael Schmitz Jr. Andrew Thomas, Francis Mauigoa and Jermaine Eluemunor all sat out, coach John Harbaugh said at his Sunday news conference. SI/OnSI's Bob Folger, who covered the game, reported the same split, noting Marcus Mbow started at right tackle in Eluemunor's place and Aaron Stinnie started at right guard for Mauigoa, who was nursing a stinger. GiantsGator's Aug. 21 preview had already reported Mauigoa left an Aug. 20 practice with that injury and that Big Blue View projected few, if any, starters would see the field that Saturday.

Why Davis's performance strengthens his roster case

Davis's performance has bolstered his case to make the 53-man roster. SI/OnSI's Bob Folger wrote Aug. 23 that Davis "has obviously made this team." Yahoo Sports' John Flanigan reported Davis's Dolphins outing graded 89.3 overall — 87.1 in pass protection, 87.0 in run blocking — with no pressures allowed across his 81 snaps. Harbaugh, addressing the performance Sunday, told reporters: "Can you play a whole game at left tackle in the National Football League? Preseason game, albeit, but still a game. And he did it, he did it well. He had a lot of plus plays, he graded out very well and that's a big step in his development for sure." GiantsGator covered Davis's full roster case Aug. 25.

Where the line stands in PFF's season-long ranking

PFF also ranks the Giants' offensive line separately from its weekly awards. In a ranking GiantsGator covered Aug. 20, PFF placed the unit 23rd of 32 teams entering the season — a 14-spot drop from ninth, where GiantsGator reported the group finished 2025 — in a rankings piece published Aug. 12 that scores "every projected starter … based primarily on PFF grades from the past three seasons … with added weight given to pass protection." That ranking centers on the five projected Week 1 starters over a full season, and PFF's methodology note says it will hold "for the first four weeks of the season" regardless of preseason play, changing only for lineup moves. The entry cited Andrew Thomas's missed time in 2023 and 2024 and called Mauigoa's move to right guard the swing factor in a unit PFF wrote "might be another season away from making a bigger impact." Neither of those projected starters played against Miami.

The Giants play the Jets in their preseason finale Friday. The 53-man roster is due to the league by 6 p.m. ET Sunday, Aug. 30.