Giants offensive lineman delivers harsh truth about team struggles that many inside the organization won’t admit

The New York Giants' season has been an incredibly bumpy one thus far. From blown fourth-quarter leads to being trounced at home numerous times, the Giants have offered little to be excited about nine games in.

It's been increasingly frustrating to observe the on-field performance every week while getting lip service from players and coaches. Many haven't been honest or direct about how they feel about the team's direction. Head coach Brian Daboll has been especially opaque when asked to address underperforming coaches and players.

Today, when speaking to the media, Giants' starting offensive lineman Jon Runyan delivered a surprisingly honest message about how the recent loss to the San Francisco 49ers felt.

"Going out there and kind of putting out the performance we had as a team, seeing the San Fran fans all packing the stadium, I felt embarrassed leaving the field," Runyan told reporters, "and that's not really a feeling you want to have leaving your own home stadium."

Jon Runyan gives an honest assessment of the Giants

There have been numerous games this season where the Giants have completely collapsed. From the Cowboys beating them in overtime to the Broncos mounting a late fourth-quarter comeback, the Giants have failed to execute when they've needed to most. According to Runyan, that's been a contributing factor to the poor vibes in the locker room.

"I feel like the wind, it kind of took the wind out of our sails, unfortunately," Runyan told the media, "But that's how this league is. It's brutal. You got to keep going after witnessing something like that, and it's tough. Those are the times where you have to come together as teammates and as brothers, and get this stuff fixed out."

Runyan also added that the team established a strong bond during the offseason. And it's been shocking to see the poor performance, given how they worked in the offseason.

"Yeah, it hurts. I think everybody in the locker room is pretty upset. I feel like going back to the
offseason program, the training camp, I felt like we really built a strong brotherhood and culture
throughout this locker room," Runyan stated, "And for us to be sitting in the same spot we were last year is not where we want it to be, not where we thought we would be. It hurts. Still got half a season left to go. I mean, the guys in this building on this offense and defense, this team, we're fighters, so we're going to keep going."

Now that the Giants are likely out of playoff contention, the heat on Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen's seats is starting to increase. It feels inevitable that the franchise will undergo a complete reset by the end of the year. Runyan was one of the first people within the organization to have a comforting viewpoint on how to approach the second half of the season.

"Anything else external, outside the building, pressures, talking about whatever is going on with our
team, that's for other people to talk about. We don't look at that as something we're worried about.
We're not worried about who we're playing in three weeks from now. We're not worried what the state of the organization is going to look for now ... However, it shapes up, that's not up to me. That's not my decision. So, I don't pay any mind about it, and we're still going to go out there and play with our coaches and our guys that we have out there, and we're going to play hard."

What the future holds for the Giants is currently a bit unclear. But it was at least encouraging to hear such an honest assessment of the team's state for once.