New York Giants Mailbag: Andrew Thomas, Roster Questions, and More
It's time for another edition of our weekly mailbag, so let's get to it.
I think he's going to be swim. I think Andrew Thomas has a lot of positive traits to his game.
The one thing that I know offensive line coach Marc Colombo cited and I agree with after watching Thomas this summer is that he has to be more consistent with his hand punch.
At times he was all over the palace with his punch, and if he's not delivering that first authoritative blow to jolt the defender, he's going to make his job more complicated than it needs to be.
Eric, I am not a fan of trying to predict won-loss records or stats for the simple reason that there are too many unknowns that influence predictions. However, since I am including the question in the mailbag, I'll take a shot with some predictions.
I think the Giants will win seven games, that Daniel Jones will throw 35 touchdowns and hover around 15 interceptions. If Evan Engram stays healthy and plays all 16 games, I see him going over 1,000 yards.
Unless I missed a transaction report this week, Corey Coleman is still unsigned.
There's a reason for that. Veteran players who get cut in camp usually don't sign with teams until Week 2 of the season so that their full salaries don't become guaranteed against the cap. That's why you'll probably see a slew of players signing after Week 1 is done.
Could the Giants get him back? Sure, but I don't see that happening.
I think this matchup scares me for the simple reason that the Giants offensive line is new and still jelling.
As of this writing, we don’t know who the center will be. As I've noted before, the Steelers defense is extremely complicated, and I'm not sure it makes sense to put Nick Gates in there right away since he's never played the position live before.
It's hard to breakdown individual matchups since the Steelers deploy their players in so many ways. Still, I would say the Giants tackles will probably be the most significant question mark until they show otherwise.
No, I am not surprised they kept Penny. Jason Garrett and Joe Judge cone from teams that valued the fullback.
I’ve always thought a tight end could better fill the role, especially when year after year, I see how little a fullback is deployed on offense. But the position, which some have said is dying, is still alive and kicking, so there's that.
To be honest, I thought Crowder might be a practice squad candidate for the simple reason he hasn’t been playing the position that long (he’s a converted running back).
I think he brings value on special teams, and the Giants are a little thin right now at the inside linebacker position.
Ultimately, I wouldn't be surprised if they thin out that unit a bit when David Mayo comes back from IR, but in the meantime, this is a good opportunity to gain experience for all the rookies on the unit.
Thanks for the question, Joey. this is a tough one, but if I had to guess, I'd say that James Bradberry, Julian Love, Jabrill Peppers, and Logan Ryan will be the four guys on the field. If they go to the nickel, I think we'll see Darnay Holmes in that group as well.
What's up, Rueben? I think back to Joe Judge's media briefing after the roster cuts were announced, and I remember him mentioning something about how they were looking to add more speed to the position.
So it sounds like to their eyes, Coleman maybe wasn't as "all the way back" from eh torn ACL as some of us in the media believed him to be.
As for Connelly, my initial thought was that maybe they didn't view him as being back from his torn ACL either, and they were hoping to slide him through to the practice squad. But let's look at this from another angle.
Connelly was a fifth-round pick chosen to fit the previous defensive coordinator's scheme. He wasn't a Pro Bowler, and while he looked promising based on a small sample size, you could probably make the same argument for some of the newer players.
I think back to the NFL combine to an answer Dave Gettleman gave me when I asked about the players on defense and how he said that there were certain types of players that the defensive coaching staff needed to make their system work.
Given what they did in the draft, it's clear to me that one of the units he was talking about was linebacker.
What's going on, Charlie? My guess is that Jabrill Peppers will do the punt returns, even more so with Golden Tate dealing with a hamstring issue. On kickoffs, I'm thinking Darnay Holmes and Corey Ballentine will go deep.
Thanks for the question, Alec. The biggest thing that jumps out at me about this staff is that they really pay attention to detail, and they don’t accept mediocrity.
Seriously, when was the last time you read about a coaching staff that made the team start practice over or run laps for committing stupid mistakes?
The practices also aren't soft. Something is going on every moment of the allotted time and not much lagging around, which is another huge difference from the previous staff.
Judge packs a lot into the time he gets each day, and he's very efficient. They devote sufficient time to the fundamentals, which was a problem I thought existed prior.
I have no idea how well the Giants will play Monday night, but at the same time, I can sit here and say that I believe Joe Judge and his staff did everything they possibly could to get this group of players ready and that if they lose, it won't be because of a lack of fundamental. But we'll see.
From Steve L.
Is Engram yet another first-round bust? Every sports announcer says the same thing “he’s a matchup nightmare. “ As a fan, I’ve never noticed but seem to notice more drops than anything. My prediction, gone after this year by an overwhelming consensus.
Steve, I'm not sure what you're watching with Engram, but his biggest issue has been staying healthy, not his lack of talent. I suppose if he gets hurt again, then you can put him in the bust category, but right now, he's got a long way to go before landing in the same sentence with Ereck Flowers and Eli Apple.
As for the drops, he has 17 over his career, per Pro Football Focus, 11 of which came in his rookie season. He's had three in each of the last two, albeit injury-shortened seasons.
Some additional encouraging stats include him finishing fourth last year among the receiving targets in first downs, there were no interceptions on balls targeted his way, and he was third on the term in YAC.
Again, if Engram stays healthy, he could have a monster year this season as Jason Garrett knows how to get the most out of the tight end position.
By the way, the Giants picked up Engram's option year in his rookie contract. I highly doubt he'll be gone "by an overwhelming consensus," as you've predicted, but we'll see.
