Dawgs in the NFL: Make or break years for former Georgia football greats

The term “bust” is thrown around way too quickly for my liking these days. A rookie has one bad year and fans want them put out to pasture.

Unfortunately for former Georgia bookend tackle Andrew Thomas, New York Giants fans have little patience for early draft pick offensive tackles who are not plug-and-play contributors.

After the Ereck Flowers debacle from several years ago, Giants fans want an early return on the draft investment.

To say that Andrew Thomas’s rookie year was a disaster would be an understatement. He gave up more pressures than any other left tackle in the league, with 57. The next closest was Alejandro Villanueva with 43.

Making matters worse, Pro Football Focus rated him 31st out of 38 qualifying left tackles in the league in their overall grades. And let’s be honest, it’s not like the other four Giant offensive linemen were doing well. Offensive line coach Marc Colombo was fired in November due to the poor performance of his unit and disagreements with the head coach.

On a more positive note, Thomas did get better as the season progressed and if he can build off of that momentum from the second half of the season, the sky is the limit for the former No. 4 overall pick.