The Giants’ offense has dealt with a slew of injuries to start the season, but the team’s defense will be without a starter for the time being as well. Edge rusher Azeez Ojulari was placed on injured reserve Saturday.
As a result of the move, he will be sidelined for at least the next four weeks. Ojulari’s absence will leave the Giants without a starter in the pass-rush department, and his ankle injury will add to the list of ailments which have forced him to miss time in his young NFL career.
The 23-year-old was limited to seven contests in 2022, and he missed a pair of games in September of this season.
Ojulari found himself in and out of the lineup with a calf issue in his second campaign, one which carried signficant expectations given his success as a rookie.
The former second-rounder led New York with eight sacks in 2021, but that total fell to 5.5 as he missed considerable time last year. Ojulari has been held without a sack, quarterback hit or tackle for loss this season while seeing the field for 95 snaps across three contests.
Still, his absence will be felt on a Giants defense which has mustered only five sacks to date. Four of those have come from fellow edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, who has shown signs of growth after a relatively quiet rookie campaign last season.
The former fifth overall pick will be counted on to anchor the Giants’ pass rush to an even larger degree with Ojulari shut down for a month or more. Bringing the latter back will require using one of New York’s eight IR activations available throughout the season.
Ojulari’s starting spot will likely go to either Jihad Ward or Boogie Basham moving forward. The former has been with the Giants since last season, one in which he provided 43 tackles and three sacks. The latter, meanwhile, was dealt away by the Bills ahead of roster cutdowns to mark an end to his underwhelming Buffalo tenure (4.5 sacks in 23 games).
As the Giants look for answers along the offensive line and prepare for at least one game without quarterback Daniel Jones, the team will now need to make an adjustment to the starting lineup on the edge.
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