Situation Impossible: Replacing Johnathan Hankins

Situation Impossible is a weekly column focusing on the most devastating injury of the week in the NFL. "Next Man Up" is a catchy phrase, but some players are harder to replace than others. Here we investigate the alternatives on hand and how a team reacted or will react to having to replace star-level performance.

Injured player: Johnathan Hankins, the massive New York Giants defensive tackle and the rare Giants player that hadn't suffered a devastating injury yet.

Injury and diagnosis: Like two other Giants this year, Hankins tore his pectoral muscle. The diagnosis is usually pretty simple in these cases: out for the remainder of the season, but fine long-term. Torn pecs have become a fairly common injury over the past few seasons for defensive linemen. Titans linebacker Brian Orakpo suffered the same injury in 2014 and is back to full strength this year.

has been a guy anchored in the middle of our D-line and we will definitely miss his presence.' - Coach Coughlin" byline="— New York Giants (@Giants)" user_id="Giants" tweet_id="663798270351826944" tweet_visual_time="November 9, 2015"]

For linemen, this is a tough injury to play through. They work with their arms on every play, trying to find the right place to induce that leverage to win a gap. It's hard to do that with a torn pectoral.

What's missing: I named Hankins to my top 25 players under 25 list this offseason. While Hankins has had a down season as a pass rusher, he's still causing plenty of chaos for other teams.

— Evan Silva (@evansilva)November 9, 2015

The performance of a run-stuffing lineman is more variable than most positions. Given Hankins' past performance, I think it's likely he would've regressed to his mean (which is to say improved) and provided a bit of pressure down the stretch as well. Plus, with the return of Jason Pierre-Paul, he would have received less attention from opposing offensive lines.

This is a big loss for the Giants defense, not only because of Hankins' skill and pedigree but also because it turns the tide of the defense. Instead of JPP's return creating easier looks to the rest of the team, Hankins' injury does the opposite to the entire front seven.

What the team will do: The Giants signed Montori Hughes off the practice squad. A third-round pick who washed out of Indianapolis, Hughes brings a massive body to the fold—perhaps a second chance with a different coaching staff will get him to understand how to fully utilize it. Stranger things have happened. Based on the snap counts on this defense, I'd ticket him for a small role.

The real opportunity here is for 2012 seventh-round pick Markus Kuhn. Kuhn has played 27.3 percent of the defensive snaps this season, but that number spiked to 46 percent in Week 9 after Hankins left. Kuhn has started just five games in four seasons and has never really risen above the role of part-time player. Kuhn and Jay Bromley will take the majority of the run-down snaps from here on out.

As for Tom Coughlin, he will stare at the field with his arms crossed and a blank-but-vaguely-pissed-off look on his face. As he has done every year since 2012.

Adjusting our expectations: The Giants have a half-game lead over the Philadelphia Eagles for control of the NFC East. With Dallas continuing to lose close games, the threat of a Tony Romo comeback has drastically diminished. Well, except for single-game situations. But the Giants have already dealt with the Cowboys twice.

The Eagles and the Giants are about even in Football Outsiders' NFC East odds. The question going forward is: Without Hankins, how good will New York's rushing defense be? New York is seventh in rush defense DVOA currently—it's the only part of the defense keeping their heads above water. Without Hankins, they allowed 5.9 yards per carry to the Bucs in Week 9, though 55 of those yards came on one Charles Sims carry.

If they can't stop Tampa Bay's run game, the rest of the upcoming schedule is also uninviting. Adrian Peterson. DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews. Chris Ivory. The newly revitalized Lamar Miller. Cam Newton and Jonathan Stewart. There aren't many teams left that the Giants play that can't threaten the box.

So here's what the season comes down to for the Giants: They just lost the main cog of the only functioning unit of the defense. Can they at least jam a wrench in there to keep the machine going?