Just no excuses for Giants’ leaky line

If you hired a roofer to fix your roof and the job still wasn’t finished four years later, it would be too late to hire a new roofer. Your house would be under water.

So what must John Mara be thinking right now as he sits in his office, holding an umbrella, watching Dave Gettleman and the Giants’ personnel department frantically try to plug holes in their leaky offensive line with last-minute trades and signings? In Year 4?!

This is glaring mismanagement, a catastrophe of epic proportions, that Gettleman is no closer to delivering on his priority to “fix the O-line” almost four years since his hiring.

“I’m going to build this team from the inside out,” Gettleman said in April 2018. “You look at the teams that go deep in the playoffs. Take a look at how [Eagles GM] Howie [Roseman] has built Philly: both fronts.”

That can’t be the same man scrambling to spend assets to acquire guards and centers here in the fall of 2021 because his interior offensive line is still so barren and depleted.

There is no way this panicked search for O-line help is being led by the same GM who told the media in May: “It’s really apparent that we have a little more confidence in our offensive linemen than you guys do.”

Everyone knew the line was a major problem in December 2017 when Gettleman was hired. Everyone knew it still wasn’t good enough coming out of last season.

The Daily News labeled the offensive line the No. 1 issue to watch at the start of the Giants’ training camp this summer. And still it has come to this.

It’s incredible.

There is blame here on Mara, obviously, for standing by an operation that has the Giants in another all-out crisis with their front five.

Mara is the franchise’s conscience, the team’s true North. And he is the one who mistakenly retained Gettleman for two straight offseasons rather than pulling the plug: in December 2019 when Mara fired Pat Shurmur, and in January after a 6-10 season brought the GM’s record to 15-33.

Head coach Joe Judge was here for left tackle Andrew Thomas’ No. 4 overall selection in 2020, as well.

But Judge wasn’t hired to make a quick fix. He is here to rebuild this franchise for sustainable success, which requires time and a commitment to player development and the long term.

Gettleman has been here for four years. He is the GM. And surely Mara had to trust him when Gettleman said in March that the “young and talented” linemen already in the building would develop into an acceptable group this fall.

That is until the Giants’ co-owner traveled to both joint practices in Cleveland and New England, watched those practices very closely — often standing in the dead center of the practice fields for a 360-degree view of all the action — and then saw the preseason finale against the Patriots.

Mara certainly seemed to have his eyes open in mid-August that his line wasn’t there yet, and he declared that the joint practice weeks would tell him a lot.

“I have confidence in that group. Did we do enough? I think time will tell,” Mara said then. “Do we have enough depth there? I’m not sure about that yet. But I think we’ll get a better indication of that over the next couple of weeks when we’re practicing against some pretty good teams.”

Now he has his answer: RED ALERT. And Mara has to be thinking, ‘Enough is enough.’

Raise your hand if you think this line can block Von Miller, Bradley Chubb and the Denver Broncos’ pass rush for four quarters on Sept. 12.

Thomas just set off a five alarm fire in the Giants’ facility with his frightening play against Matt Judon and the Pats. If Thomas doesn’t lose his starting spot to Nate Solder, second-year right tackle Matt Peart will.

Left guard Shane Lemieux’s knee is going to have to be managed. Center Nick Gates might have to change positions. Trade acquisition Ben Bredeson looks like he is going to see time immediately at guard.

It appears the Giants actually traded for an unvaccinated interior lineman in Billy Price to help them. Center Matt Skura just got here on the practice squad, too. And they worked out free agent centers Tristen Hoge and Drake Jackson on Thursday.

Judge has intimated twice in the last week that he might have to rotate his linemen like he did last season to find acceptable combinations, if that’s what it takes.

“Obviously with the offensive linemen, it works by operating as a unit and continuing with the chemistry — whether it’s five, six, seven, eight guys that rotate through those positions and play,” Judge said.

Right guard Will Herrnandez, who proved resilient in a do-ordie camp for him personally, said this week that the line knows this isn’t good enough.

“We constantly want to get better,” Hernanadez said. “We know we need to get better quick.”

It is a cruel irony that the Giants’ unwise plan to quick-fix their O-line in 2018 to help Eli Manning make one last run — rather than drafting and developing for the long term — has left the cupboard so bare to protect Daniel Jones in 2021, too.

It is also an indictment of the club’s personnel calls that Thomas, Lemieux, Gates, Hernandez, Peart and Solder all have been drafted or signed since the GM got here. And Gates is the only one you can confidently point at and say: he can do it.

The early camp retirements of Joe Looney and Zach Fulton are no excuse. Fulton wasn’t going to make the team. And relying on either as a solution was a problem in the first place.

Gettleman said when he was hired in 2017 that “we’ve got to fix the O-line, let’s be honest. Let’s not kid each other. Big men allow you to compete, and that’s what we’ve got to fix.”

He also said that day that “you can’t put a timeframe on anything” with an offensive line rebuild.

“I’m not going to sit up here and tell you I’m going to fix it in two years because John is going to run me out of the building, OK?” he said.

Well, this is Year 4. This is a disaster. And Mara’s patience has to be wearing thin.