Giants offensive lineman out for season after undergoing surgery

New York Giants offensive lineman Shane Lemieux is out for the rest of the 2021 season after undergoing surgery to repair his patellar tendon on Wednesday, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Lemieux had attempted to play through the injury, playing 17 snaps in the Giants’ season-opener against Denver, before realizing the injury he suffered in preseason was too severe to play on.

Shane Lemieux was placed on Injured Reserve after the season-opener.

Giants head coach Joe Judge was hopeful the left guard out of Oregon would be able to return during the season.

“From everything we’ve talked about, we can’t rule anything out right now in terms of something being over,” Judge said on Monday. “He’ll obviously have to wait and see how his body responds. I’m very hopeful that he can come back, but that being said, I don’t have a crystal ball right now on that.”

With Shane Lemieux now out for the year, the Giants will be without two starting offensive linemen, likely for the season.

In the season-opening loss to Washington, Nick Gates suffered a gruesome injury, breaking his lower left leg in a 30-29 loss to Washington. After starting the previous 17 games at center, Gates was playing left guard in Lemieux’s place before suffering the injury. The Nebraska product was placed on injured reserve.

Shane Lemieux is in his second year in the NFL. After being drafted by the Giants in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Lemieux started the last nine games of his rookie season at left guard.

In five seasons at Oregon, Lemieux started 52 consecutive games at left guard for the Ducks. Shane Lemieux was named a first-team All-American as a junior and a second-team All-American as a senior. After his senior year, he was invited to the NFL Combine and the Senior Bowl.

The Giants are 0-2 through the first two weeks of the season. Quarterback Daniel Jones has thrown for 516 yards and two touchdowns, completing nearly 64% of his passes. On the ground, Jones is outgaining starting running back Saquon Barkley, who is returning from a torn ACL that ended his 2020 season. Through two games, Jones has 122 rushing yards on 15 carries to Barkley’s 83 yards on 23 carries.

Defensively, rookie Azeez Ojulari out of Georgia has been already recorded two sacks. The Giants secondary has been highly productive as well. Cornerbacks Logan Ryan, James Bradberry and Adoree Jackson are three of the top four leading tacklers on the team, with Bradberry, Jackson and Xavier McKinney leading the team in passes deflected. Bradberry and Ryan have also recorded the only two turnovers the Giants have come up with.