Big Blue View
With the New York Giants preparing for a game on Sunday against the Washington Commanders, we bring back our ‘5 questions’ segment. ‘Eboracum’, from SB Nation’s Commanders site, Hogs Haven, answers our deeply probing questions.
Ed: As good as Jayden Daniels was last season, are there areas of growth you would like to see?
Eboracum: The main thing I want to see is for OC Kliff Kingsbury to expand the offense (last year he ran a very college-style offense to make things easier for his rookie QB) and for Jayden to execute a more diverse and pro-style set of plays. I also want to see Jayden working from the pocket more rather than breaking the pocket, which I’m hoping he’ll be able to do thanks to our upgraded OL. In terms of his technical ability as a QB though, there aren’t any glaring weaknesses for him to fix. He spent the offseason refining his footwork and adding some muscle to increase his durability, so that should help, but he had good footwork and durability last year too.
Ed: The Commanders have the oldest roster in the NFL. Do you worry about regression because of that?
Eboracum: I’m not really worried about the age of our roster. GM Adam Peters had to completely re-make the roster when he took over and there was only so much he could do in one or two offseasons, so he’s filled out much of the roster with mid-tier veterans on short contracts. The main thing I would normally worry about with older players is that we’d keep them after they fall off a performance cliff or that they would be more injury prone. We’ve avoided the former by signing them to short (mostly 1-year) contracts and we’ve avoided the latter by having an extremely effective and tailored body maintenance plan for each player that HC Dan Quinn has been known for ever since he coached in Atlanta.
That’s not to say I’m not worried about some sort of regression though. The regression I’m more worried about is our conversion rate on 4th down. On average, NFL teams convert about 50% of attempts on 4th down. During the 2024 regular season, the Commanders converted on 20 of 23 4th down attempts, which is a staggering 87% conversion rate (the highest of any team with at least 15 attempts in the Super Bowl era). I fully expect that conversion rate to regress, so we need to be better on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down to get into fewer 4th down situations.
Ed: Who is one player on each side of the ball Giants fans might not know much about, but should watch for on Sunday?
Eboracum: On offense, look for both young RBs Jacory Crosky-Merritt (he goes by Bill Merritt) and Chris Rodriguez Jr. Bill is a 7th-round rookie who fell in the draft due to an eligibility issue that forced him to sit most of his final season of college football,...
