Big Blue View
Donald Sussman asks: Ed, with the signing of Ricard it looks like the Giants’ offense will be focused on a fullback helping the run game. But all of the roster projections have the Giants 53 man team carrying only a single fullback.
My question is what happens if Ricard gets hurt during a game? Do they need to call different plays? Is there another player on the roster that is practicing that position and could fill in? Bellinger and Chatman are gone and I don’t see an obvious backup fullback option.
Ed says: Donald, teams very rarely carry a true second fullback. Most don’t even carry one. The Giants carried two when Joe Judge was head coach in 2021, but that was only because Cullen Gillaspia was a key special teamer. He played just four offensive snaps, while Eli Penny handled the fullback duties.
Patrick Ricard will be used situationally. He won’t be on the field every time the Giants run the ball. If he gets hurt, the Giants will do what NFL teams do every week. They will adjust. Maybe Chris Manhertz or Theo Johnson would lead block out of the backfield. Maybe they would use two inline tight ends on some plays. Maybe they would use an offensive lineman in the backfield. Maybe, as you indicated, the fullback plays in the game plan would just get scrapped.
We have seen very little run game thus far, so we haven’t seen what any contingency plan might be.
Bill Michalski asks: Watching the placekicker competition on the Giants this year, I’m wondering how predictive a kicker’s college career is of their success in the NFL. One would think that of all positions it might have the strongest correlation, especially if there are 3+ years of data to demonstrate consistency. What do the numbers say? Is a “placekicking competition” in camp just a way to make bad decisions based on recency bias and a too-small sample?
Ed says: Bill, I think we can say that no college player’s career at any position is predictive with foolproof accuracy of succcess at the NFL level. What a player does in college tells you he has a chance, but does not guarantee success.
The hashmarks are different in college and the NFL. In some ways, that might make kicking in college harder because of the angles.
I also think expectations are higher in the NFL. Look at the Giants’ current kickers. Dominic Zvada made just 68% of his field-goal attempts last season, and 82.8% in his career. Zvada had two good seasons and two so-so seasons. Ben Sauls made 81.3% in college. In the NFL, those percentages make you a journeyman guy bouncing from team to team looking for opportunities.
As far as making a decision, what other way would they make it? These guys kick a few times a week beginning in the spring and going through training camp and preseason games. The guy who does the best job will win. There...
