Big Blue View
Giants fans are most interested in who will play guard
The New York Giants 2025 training camp is well and truly under way.
The first week of practices are in the book and some of our anticipated training camp battles are already taking shape. Just before camp kicked off, we asked the Big Blue View community which camp battle they were most interested in seeing.
The choices were:
Offensive guard - Greg Van Roten vs. Evan Neal
Cornerback - Deonte Banks vs. Cor’Dale Flott
Wide receiver - Darius Slayton vs. Jalin Hyatt
Defensive tackle - Rakeem Nunez-Roches vs. Darius Alexander
The overall result isn’t much of a surprise.
Giants fans want to see the offensive line get settled soonest, preferably with an upgrade.
So far, this battle hasn’t been a particularly heated one in practice. Van Roten has gotten the lion’s share of the snaps with the first team. However, Neal has been getting series with the starters during team periods.
It’s worth noting that, as of this writing, fully padded practices haven’t started yet. Those will start with practice on Sunday, and always difficult to judge play along the line of scrimmage before the pads go on. If this is a true battle and Neal has a real chance to take a starting job, that’s when we’ll see this battle heat up.
The battle at wide receiver may have been on the brink of heating up, as Hyatt flashed with some impressive plays early in camp, but was sidelined due to a hamstring cramp. We can’t blame the Giants’ coaches for being cautious in the heat, particularly after he suffered a hamstring injury in minicamp. Hopefully we’ll get to see Hyatt back on the field once camp resumes, either pushing Slayton to be better or attacking defenses as a duo down the field.
The most interesting battle right now is Banks vs. Flott at cornerback, at least for those of us on the outside. The two have been rotating at outside corner and seem to have a pretty even split of the snaps with the starters. It will be fascinating to see how the Giants handle this battle as practices progress and into joint practices with the Jets. We might not get clarity on this one until after the second preseason game.
