Shane Lemieux goes on injured reserve ahead of Giants’ Washington test

LANDOVER, Md. — At this rate, there might be a “30 for 30″ documentary released one day on the Giants’ 2021 offensive line.

Left guard Shane Lemieux (knee) was placed on injured reserve Thursday afternoon ahead of an enormous Week 2 visit to division rival Washington. Lemieux has a partially torn patellar tendon in his knee that may require surgery.

So head coach Joe Judge moved center Nick Gates to left guard for Thursday night’s game and gave new trade acquisition Billy Price his first Giants’ start at center.

Ben Bredeson, also acquired in a recent trade, could be on the verge of possibly overtaking right guard Will Hernandez if his play doesn’t improve.

And starting right tackle Nate Solder has second-year pro Matt Peart rotating in behind him, with the organization crossing its fingers that Peart can play better and eventually regain the job.

The Giants also signed center Matt Skura off their practice squad to the active roster to provide depth and factor in the coming weeks.

Left tackle Andrew Thomas is the only offensive lineman on the roster whose position and status on the starting five is predictable week to week — not that he’s proven himself yet, either.

This is a frightening state of the Giants’ offensive line: constant turnover, position changes, rotations, and question marks.

“You guys ask me all the time about the offensive line,” Judge said Tuesday in defense of his players, before adding: “That’s [what] your job is supposed to be. You guys are asking the right questions.”

Questions like these: why did Lemieux, who got hurt on the second day of training camp July 29, return to a full practice on August 6?

By August 20, he was being pulled early from the second joint practice in Cleveland. Then the severity of his knee injury was reported by The Athletic.

And after starting the season opener against Denver, Lemieux lasted only three drives before Bredeson replaced him for good.

Lemieux wasn’t a sure solution at the left guard spot, either, but his injury and absence contributed to Judge going to his “‘break glass in case of emergency” response early: the move of Gates to guard.

Gates, the Giants’ most versatile lineman, was a tackle at Nebraska.

The undrafted free agent spent his 2018 season on injured reserve. In 2019, he started three games at right tackle and one at right guard, a Week 15 win over the tanking Miami Dolphins in Eli Manning’s final game.

Then the Giants converted him to a center in 2020.

The team signed centers Jonotthan Harrison and Joe Looney and guard Zach Fulton this past offseason, with either Gates or Looney projected to move to guard in the season’s starting five.

But Looney and Fulton both retired in early August, and Harrison made enough mistakes to not even make it past cutdown day.

The problem, then, was the Giants had worked Gates at center entering a second straight season, but they had a glaring need at guard.

So GM Dave Gettleman scrambled after cutdown day and traded for Price, a Bengals backup, and Bredeson, a Ravens backup, before signing Skura, a Dolphins cut.

Gettleman gave Baltimore the Giants’ 2022 fourth-round pick in exchange for Bredeson, a 2022 fifth-round pick and a 2023 seventh-round pick. And they sent backup defensive end B.J. Hill and a 2022 conditional seventh round draft pick to Cincinnati for Price.

Then in Week 1, the Giants’ running backs gained just 33 total rushing yards on 14 carries (2.35 per rush).

Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett took a lot of heat for what was basically a 7-point performance against Denver, not including a Daniel Jones rushing TD on the game’s final play in garbage time.

Saquon Barkley wasn’t efficient and didn’t look like himself, either. But the line is a constant source of uncertainty, and Judge said they hear the doubters. They know no one believes in them.

“What’s said on the outside, we don’t worry about it on the inside, OK?” the coach said. “But they’re aware of it. They’re aware of it. That’s a challenge for these guys. And I like the way they respond to that every day. They come out and they work, and they don’t really care what’s being said about them. It’s not going to deter from how they work and stick together as a team and support each other.”

Losing Lemieux and having to move Gates to guard on the fly in Week 2, however, is a good example of how the challenges just keep mounting for a group in constant flux.

Gettleman was brought to New York in December 2017 to fix the line above all else. On Thursday night, there was as much uncertainty as there’s ever been.