Andrew Thomas’ game-changing penalty isn’t even his biggest concern coming out of the Giants loss.
The star left tackle is headed for imaging on his foot after a postgame X-ray determined that a closer look was needed.
He was limping just to get back to the huddle Sunday during the fourth quarter and admitted afterward that he felt “not great.”
“I don’t know exactly what it is, so we’ll see what they say,” Thomas said. “They said we need an MRI to see exactly what’s going on.”
Thomas allowed two sacks, including one on the final drive of the Giants’ 17-7 loss to the Bengals.
“I was fighting,” Thomas said.
Thomas had two ankle surgeries earlier in his career and missed seven games last season due to a hamstring injury.
Most relevantly, he did not play in Week 5 of the 2021 season due to a foot injury.
The Giants have had the same five offensive linemen play every snap this season.
If they lose Thomas, the options are moving right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor to the left side and inserting either Josh Ezeudu or Evan Neal — two benched former starters — or having one of those two start in Thomas’ place.
Either way, Thomas is one of the most irreplaceable Giants.
And that’s even after his poor game Sunday that included an illegal man downfield penalty to wipe out a 56-yard completion to Darius Slayton.
“Not good enough,” Thomas said of his performance. “It was an RPO [run-pass option]. A similar play happened last week and they didn’t call it. Sometimes it’s just 50/50.”
