ESPN Ranks Giants' Core Players in Top Half of League
The New York Giants surprised their fans last season when general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, despite limited salary cap funds and a rash of injuries, put together an overachieving roster that finished with its first winning record and playoff berth since 2016.
So with a better cap situation and a bevy of draft picks in this, Year 2 of the accelerated rebuild, Schoen and Daboll worked on improving the roster to close the talent gaps between the Cowboys and Eagles.
Whether the Giants were successful in doing so remains to be seen. Still, as far as the Giants' core group of players (defined in this case as a team's five most important players), ESPN's Seth Walder, in his ranking of all 32 teams' core players, believes that the Giants are on the upswing.
Walder, who identified the Giants core group as quarterback Daniel Jones, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, offensive tackle Andrew Thomas, outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux, and tight end Darren Waller--ranked the Giants at No. 15 out of the 32 teams.
Huge seasons from Lawrence -- who managed to rank fourth among defensive tackles in pass rush win rate (17%) despite playing nose tackle -- and Thomas mean the Giants have major talent in the trenches, with more upside available from Thibodeaux. Jones is coming off a career year but remains somewhat of a question mark.
That's not a bad ranking for a group whose average age is 25.4 years. Lawrence showed himself to be a stud with his breakout season last year, while Jones made the most out of what he had, which wasn't exactly a group of household names.
Thomas is also a stud at left tackle who will get paid sooner than later. While Thibodeaux didn't have eye-popping numbers like fellow rookie edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson of the Lions, Thibodeaux was a factor for the Giants by influencing plays for others to make.
Waller? When healthy, he's one of the top tight ends in the league, and the Giants are counting on him to be their de factor No. 1 receiver.
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(Interestingly enough, running back Saquon Barkley was not included in the core group of players, no doubt, due to his contract impasse with the club. But for this coming year, he probably should have been.)
The key for the Giants will be playing faster in Year 2 of their systems implemented by the new coaching staff last year. On offense, the hope is that Jones and Waller can help open up the deeper passing game for more explosive plays.
On the defensive side of the ball, the hope is that Lawrence, who showed some pass-rushing prowess, and Thibodeaux can create headaches for opposing quarterbacks by moving them off their marks.
Is this Giants core good enough to improve its 9-7-1 record from a year ago and to make it back to the playoffs despite the doubts CBS Sports recently expressed about the Giants doing so?
That remains to be seen, but for starters, it would be nice to see how much the Giants have closed the talent gap with the two teams in their division that finished ahead of them last year (and who earned a place in Walder's top six teams), those, of course, being Philadelphia (No. 3) and Dallas (No. 6).
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