John Michael Schmitz faces tough challenge as Giants’ potential future center

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Who knew when John Michael Schmitz was U.S. Bank Stadium watching the Giants face the Minnesota Vikings in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, he’d be watching his future NFL club.

Schmitz, who the Giants drafted 57th overall on day 2 of the NFL Draft, now potentially could be an important piece of New York’s offensive line for the foreseeable future. Center has been a position the Giants have needed to fortify for some time and after Nick Gates and Jon Feliciano departed via free agency this offseason, it became an even great point of emphasis.

Neither the Giants nor Schmitz said that he’d get the starting job next season, but it would be hard to imagine that the highly touted prospect won’t at least compete for the starting gig in camp. Next to Jets second-round Joe Tippmann, Schmitz was one of the best centers in this year’s draft class.

But he’ll certainly have a tough task ahead of him at the NFL level. The NFC East is a division stacked with dangerous defensive lines, none more so than the one that resides down I-95 in Philadelphia.

Giants general manager Joe Schoen had said last week in response to a question by amNewYork that he kept an eye on what division rivals do. The Eagles had picked a pair of defensive players in the first round of the draft on Thursday night, taking defensive tackle Jalen Carter and linebacker Nolan Smith.

When asked a similar question on Friday night after they finished day 2 of the draft, Schoen indicated the selection of Schmitz wasn’t a direct reaction to what Philly had done, but reiterated his earlier comments.

“You know it was a position…we were looking at the entire offensive line. We look across all (positions),” Schoen said. “But I mean, you’re always looking at the division, it’s important on how you match up. You know, I go back to when he was at New England and they had the two really good tight ends. You’re always trying to figure out who can cover Gronk or whoever it may be. So yeah you’re always looking at it, but I think being strong at the offensive and defensive line regardless is always going to take priority.”

It won’t just be the Eagles that Schmitz will need to be ready for. Dallas and Washington among other teams could all present a challenge for any rookie center.

But Schmitz said the approach for him to be ready for that challenge is setting the right tone.

“You’ve got to be physical. You’ve got to set the tone from the start, first quarter to fourth quarter,” Schmitz said. “It’s not going to happen right away. We always used to say, if you are going to run the ball, you’re going to have body blows and the body blows turn to like 25, 30-yard touchdowns, and I mean, you just continue to wear those guys down, the defensive linemen, and eventually they’ll break.”