Big Blue View
The Giants’ GM is looking forward to watching the defense hunt quarterbacks
We’ve reached a bit of a lull in the NFL’s seemingly relentless calendar. The offseason excitement of the free agency frenzy, the draft, and rookie minicamp are all in the rear-view mirror.
We can all finally take something like a breath. The New York Giants, however, are slowly ramping up their off-season program as they get ready for mandatory mini-camp.
Giants’ GM Joe Schoen took some time while the players were out working to make an appearance on Kay Adams’ “Up & Adams” podcast. And while Schoen refrained from breaking any news — Adams asked him if he’d announce a Gabe Davis signing — he did provide some insight.
Schoen got into how he views the Giants’ schedule, the defense the Giants built, and how excited the team is to have Jaxson Dart.
It isn’t a secret and much has already been made of the fact that he Giants have the toughest schedule in the NFL — at least on paper. Schoen, however, doesn’t necessarily view that as a bad thing.
Rather, he views their opening gauntlet of the Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs, and Chargers as an opportunity.
“Right at the beginning, you want to get off to a fast start,” Schoen said. “That’s something we did in 2022 and haven’t the last two years, so you’d always like to get off to a fast start if you can. We’ve got two division games there with Washington and Dallas right out of the gate, and then a prime time game at home.”
Schoen isn’t blind to how difficult their schedule could be. But rather, he and the coaching staff are facing it head-on and working to get the team ready to face that test.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. You know, it is what it is, and we have to control the controllables,” Schoen said. “We’re going to focus on us right now, this time of year, bringing the guys together — we have some new players, rookies and free agents that we signed.
“Really, just starting to build the team culture and continuity amongst the guys that we have,” he added. “Each year it’s different and there’s a lot of roster turnover year to year. Right now we’re just focused on us and we like the pieces we brought in this off season. It’s going to continue to gel and we’ll be ready to go at the start of the season.”
Ideally, much of that roster turnover would result in net gains for the team. Schoen and the Giants’ front office certainly worked to make that the case for the defense this off-season.
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