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Giants finish 27th in roster rankings
The offseason is at an end for the New York Giants and the NFL as a whole.
The 32 teams are about to open training camp and start the push toward the regular season. Over the next month they’ll be paring their 90-man rosters down and we’ll start to get a much better idea of what the teams will look like in September.
ESPN analysts Mike Clay, Aaron Schatz, and Seth Walder collaborated to evaluate and rank all 32 rosters as a final offseason exercise.
We combined their rankings to form the ultimate preseason roster ranking, considering factors such as talent, age and production.
We didn’t stop there. Along with projecting every starting lineup, Clay detailed the strongest and weakest position groups for each team, Walder identified X factors and Schatz picked nonstarters who could have an outsized role this season.
The bottom line: They rank the Giants 27th in the NFL.
But let’s go over each section and why they made the decisions they did.
ESPN says: Defensive front. The Giants still have many major roster concerns, but they might have the league’s best defensive front. It starts at edge rusher with arguably the league’s most intimidating trio. Brian Burns is seventh in the NFL with 54.5 sacks since entering the league in 2019, Kayvon Thibodeaux ranks 21st with 17.0 over the past two seasons, and, as if that’s not enough, New York spent the third pick of April’s draft on Abdul Carter. The Giants’ D-Line also features one of the league’s top defensive tackles in Dexter Lawrence II (second-team All-Pro in 2022 and 2023). — Mike Clay
I don’t know how you could go anywhere else. Tacking Dexter Lawrence on as almost an afterthought at the end is a decision, but edge defenders do tend to garner most of the attention. Lawrence may not be able to replicate a season that had him on pace to finish with 12.5 or 13 sacks as a nose tackle, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be a (hugely) disruptive force.
The trio of Burns, Thibodeaux, and Carter should be absolutely terrifying to opposing offensive lines and will (hopefully) give opposing coordinators fits trying to scheme for them. Each of them are explosive, athletic, and versatile players, giving the Giants a huge number of options for creating pressure and havoc.
The biggest question about the unit here is who’ll be lining up next to Lawrence and when. The Giants added Darius Alexander (who had one of the highest pass rush win rates among the rookie defensive tackles), as well as depth pieces in Chauncey Golsten, Roy Robertson-Harris, and Jeremiah Ledbetter. I’m also curious to see how the experience of being forced into starting roles has impacted the development of Elijah Chatman and Jordon Riley.
ESPN says: Offensive line. The Giants are set to return all five starters from 2024, but that might not be a...
