Big Blue View
The New York Giants offseason program wraps up on Wednesday, with one last practice before summer vacation.
The Giants are a team in transition under John Harbaugh, trying to make the leap from “rebuilding” to “contending”. If they’re going to take that jump, they’re going to need all of their position groups to step up under the new regime. Some position groups are going to need to take bigger steps than others. Harbaugh only tinkered with some groups, while others were completely rebuilt this offseason.
After six months of free agency, the draft, workouts, OTAs, and minicamp, which position group is the most interesting to you?
The Giants have added six new wide receivers this year (Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III, Malachi Fields, Odell Beckham Jr., JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Braxton Berrios), but we haven’t seen their top two receivers as Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton recover from surgery. Interestingly, even former third- round pick Jalin Hyatt is making some noise in minicamp.
The Giants didn’t do much at the top of the depth chart, at least so far. As of June, the only change to the starting line is the addition of Sisi Mauigoa at right guard — and re-signing Jermaine Eluemunor. But the depth has been reworked considerably, with the additions of guard Daniel Faalele, center Lucas Patrick, and rookie tackles J.C. Davis and Ryan Schernecke. Former first round pick Evan Neal was also a surprising re-sign and is fighting for a job. Could he or Faalele unseat Jon Runyan Jr. and make the Giants’ front even bigger, younger, and less expensive?
This position looks wildly different from a year ago, now that Dexter Lawrence II has taken his talents to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Giants have seemingly embraced a philosophic shift under Dennard Wilson — though we can’t say whether that was by design or necessity in the wake of the Lawrence trade. Now, the Giants have added nine new defensive lineman in D.J. Reader, Shelby Harris, Leki Fotu, Sam Roberts, Zacch Pickens, as well as rookies Bobby Jamison-Travis, Anquin Barnes Jr., and Ben Barten.
(The Giants also lost Roy Robertson-Harris to a ruptured Achilles and Roberts to an undisclosed surgery, however the team believes we’ll see them both sooner or later this year.)
Who will join second year tackle Darius Alexander on the starting line (or will he be overtaken?), and how will the Giants employ their defensive linemen in their new scheme?
This is another position that has been completely reworked over the last six months. The Giants signed Tremaine Edmunds and Cam Jones in free agency, re-signed Micah McFadden, and drafted Arvell Reese and Jack Kelly. The Giants’ starting trio of Reese, Edmunds, and McFadden are one of the biggest, longest, and most athletic linebacking units in the NFL and have been a real problem for the offense throughout the spring. The Giants’ outside linebackers — Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux —...
