“Everyone…the quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs and coaches. We’re kind of all in this together. We’re all at the same pace of learning. It’s good I guess that this is all combined at the same time.” Giants offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz. Photo by Al Thompson

EAST RUTHERFORD: To say the Giants offensive line is going through changes in 2014 would be an understatement. The once vaunted line of David Diehl, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, Rich Seubert, and Kareem McKenzie is now gone for good. This unit played together from 2006-2010. At one time, the group started 38 consecutive regular-season games, then the league’s longest streak.

One by one each player left the team mostly because of injuries that caught up with each of them.

Yesterday, with Snee’s retirement, also because of injuries, a great era in Giants football ended.

The new group, led by second-year tackle Justin Pugh and veteran Geoff Schwartz are looking forward to the challenge of creating a chemistry with this new group.

“You would definitely like to have some older guys from the last team, the last year,” Schwartz said before practice on Tuesday. “It was disappointing to see Snee go, but now it’s our chance to develop our own identity. We have a lot of new guys, a lot of young guys. Today we’ll start that process.”

The Giants are also installing a new offense. Veteran quarterback Eli Manning and an offensive line with at least three new starters must to get used to new coordinator Ben McAdoo.

“It’s a different feeling this time of year than in previous years,” Manning said on Monday. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do and a lot to improve on to get comfortable, myself with my teammates and everything that goes on with being successful in an offense. I know we’ve got a lot of work to do. But we’re excited about that challenge.’’

Schwartz said he wants to put a positive spin on the situation they have been thrown into.

“It’s nice that everyone is learning the offense all at once,” said Schwartz, who has also played for the Carolina Panther, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings before landing in North Jersey.

“Everyone…the quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs and coaches. We’re kind of all in this together. We’re all at the same pace of learning. It’s good I guess that this is all combined at the same time.”

Pugh, who played for Council Rock South in Bucks County, PA before starring at Syracuse, agreed with Schwartz that it could be an advantage that with the new offense being installed, everyone on offense is learning together.

“Obviously the offense is new this year,” Pugh said at Tuesday’s media gathering at the Giants practice facility. “But everyone will be on the same page, learning at the same rate. I think it helped me a lot. I was able to get in there, start fresh in the spring and get a lot of good reps. We have five [preseason] games  that I am excited about. I think being familiar about the way things are run around here, how practices are handled, it made me a lot more comfortable out there on the field and in general.”

Rookie guard/center Weston Richburg, a second round pick out of Colorado, will lead a group of eager linemen who will battle in training camp to fill the three starting spots after Schwartz and Pugh…including J. D. Walton, Will Beatty, John Jerry, James Brewer, Charles Brown and Brandon Mosley.

Pugh says he has learned after his first year in New York, the Giants will not dwell on the loss of any player including a potential Hall of Fame guard in Snee.

“Someone has to step up, the team can’t stop when guys leave,” Pugh said. “We have the ‘next guy up’ mentality and that’s how the Giants have always been and will continue to be that way.”

Email Al Thompson at the.magazine2@footballstories.com