Musings from the Giants' 17-13 Loss to the Cleveland Browns

Eli Penny's expanded role, a cleared path for David Sills to make the roster, and other thoughts following the Giants' second preseason game.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 22, 2021 8:27 PM EDT

When Giants head coach Joe Judge initially revealed his personnel deployment plan for the first preseason game, I'll be the first to admit that I had my doubts about it, especially considering how the Giants offense in particular struggled last year.

Ah, but as Judge always likes to say, every year is a new year. That's why the thinking all along is that the Giants offense would make strides in Year 2 of the same offensive system, a system in which, unlike last year when the COVID pandemic wiped out spring football, allowed for the coaching staff and the players to go through the installs the right way.

“It really went back to the quality of practice we had," Judge said of his decision to hold the starters out this week. "With the volume and intensity of the work we had, we thought that it was best for the health of those players, especially with a quick turnaround and one day off in between."

Sure enough, Daniel Jones--who by the way has been operating without having top skill plyers Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, Kyle Rudolph, and Saquon Barkley for the majority of the team drills this summer--has indeed looked more comfortable running the offense. And yes, the offense has been run at an up-tempo pace and in a controlled environment designed to protect the players from an overzealous individual looking to impress.

In taking the approach he has, Judge has also been able to look at the depth, which is essential considering that injuries will pop up. The last thing the Giants want is to be caught without quality depth to be available if there should be an injury.

Last but not least, when you look at the number of injuries around the league so far, can anyone fault Judge for maybe wanting to limit the exposure of his starters in a meaningless preseason game?

Yes, we are all waiting to see Jones and the first-team offense in a game against live competition. It sure does sound like that will be coming next weekend against the Patriots, where the Giants' starters are projected to get in about a half a game's worth of snaps before being pulled for the backups who still might be fighting for roster spots.

"As we get these guys ready to go next week, we know it’s going to be a hard work week that simulates a regular season week and having a competitive practice session with Patriots," Judge said.

"It was the best thing for the health of the team and it also gave us an opportunity to really evaluate a lot of guys on the roster. We have to make sure that we have as clear a picture as possible to give them a fair evaluation.”

Here are a few other musings from this week's game.

MORE: Giants' Backup Offensive Line Shows Improvement in 17-13 Loss to Browns

1. I get the impression that the Giants want to keep fullback Eli Penny on the 53-man roster, but to justify doing so, he has to deliver more on offense than he has to date. And while that's not necessarily Penny's fault--blame it more on how the fullback role has evolved into becoming more of just a lead blocker--the opportunity is now there for Penny to grab.

Penny, like his main competition Cullen Gillaspia, has received a share of snaps on special teams. But the Giants coaches, in keeping to their philosophy of "Tell me what a guy can do," have no doubt realized that Penny is a solid receiver out of the backfield, having caught 84.2% of his career pass targets for 117 yards, but no touchdowns, a 92.3 NFL Rating.

As a runner, Penny, whose pass blocking has been an underrated aspect of his game, has 59 career regular-season snaps for 203 yards and two touchdowns. Fifteen of his career rushing attempts have gone for first downs.

The Giants, in exploring that aspect of Penny's ability, have been giving the fullback some additional snaps at H-back, where so far this summer, he has rushed three times for 19 yards.

This plan to give Penny more looks could be a big reason why the Giants decided to pull the plug on Alfred Morris's return so quickly. Based on his history, Penny can give the Giants quality special teams snaps and appears to be a player who, if the Giants want to shake things up, can be counted on to provide the occasional surprise or two each week.

2. In what is an encouraging sign, tight end Kyle Rudolph did some pre-game work with Daniel Jones, a potential sign that he might be at the point of being able to pass his physical.

The potential timing of Rudolph's removal from the PUP list comes as no surprise as the Giants wanted to give Rudolph as much time as possible to get his surgically repaired foot right. But more importantly, from a roster perspective, the Giants would need to activate Rudolph off PUP now if he's to be a part of the 53-man roster to start the season.

If Rudolph wasn't ready to pass a physical by the time training camp ended, he would have been moved from active PUP to inactive PUP to start the season. That means he wouldn't have been eligible to participate in any football activity for at least six weeks.

If Rudolph does return and has any setbacks, at that point, he becomes eligible for IR, where the stay is only a minimum of three weeks.

"He had a good week this week at rehab. When I talked to him with the medical team, it’s optimistic that there may be a chance coming up to get off," Judge said of Rudolph's prospects of coming off PUP.

"Again, that is an individual basis so we will see what the medical team says on that and see if we can get him out there with the team working.”

Meanwhile, cornerback Aaron Robinson, the other remaining Giant on the PUP list, will likely be rolled over to the inactive/PUP status once the initial 53-man roster is set. I could see Robinson's rookie career taking shape much in the same way as Xavier McKinney's took last season when, after being activated off IR, he was slowly worked into the mix to get his feet wet.

3. My eyes tell me that there is no way that cornerback Sam Beal makes the 53-man roster.

But in knowing how high general manager Dave Gettleman has been on him in the past and considering the Giants didn't quit on his talent when he ran into some legal issues last year, I wonder if the Giants might be hoping to stash Beal on the practice squad.

It makes sense if the Giants still like his skillset. Beal's biggest problem has been his sloppy technique, and if he can get the coaching he missed out on last year, who knows? Maybe the Giants might be able to salvage that transaction?

MORE: What’s the New York Giants’ Biggest Weakness Ahead of the 2021 Season?

4. To no one's surprise, the Giants, according to an NFL Network report, have had some trade inquiries for kicker Ryan Santoso.

For those wondering why there would be interest in the big-legged kicker even though he's yet to attempt a field goal this summer, former NFL scout David Turner, who is my guest on Monday's LokedOn Giants podcast, pointed out that scouts who attend NFL preseason games take into consideration not only what a kicker does in a game, but also what he does in warmups.

My guess, though, is the Patriots have the inside track on acquiring Santoso. They'll get to see him in practice up close and personal this week, and wouldn't it be nice of Bill Belichick to give his former special teams coordinator an extra draft pick next year in exchange for a guy who can fill a glaring hole on their roster?

5. Receiver David Sills V sure isn't making this easy.

Sills continues to make plays every opportunity he gets. This week he caught three out of five pass targets for 31 yards and a touchdown and is currently the team's receiving yardage leader with 80 yards on six receptions.

But what about special teams, which Sills hasn't done yet? Well, earlier this month, Judge suggested that Sills has contributed to special teams before.

So why hasn't he done much of that in games? Because the team has been deploying Sills as an X-receiver in practice with Golladay sidelined to give the offense the looks they need, special teams taking a back seat for now.

As I see it, Sills could be this generations' version of David Tyree, not necessarily a bad thing. The question comes down to the numbers the Giants keep.

Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, and Kadarius Toney should be locks. C.J. Board looks like he'll be the fifth receiver. And I think the final receiver spot will come down to Sills and John Ross, with Sills having taken the lead in that race, given that Ross has been banged up.

6. Quarterback Brian Lewerke won't make the 53-man roster. As a potential practice squad candidate, the Giants have a guy with fine mobility and a decent enough arm who can potentially simulate all those mobile quarterbacks on the Giants' schedule.

Remember, Mike Glennon, who has a strong arm, isn't known for his athleticism and mobility, while Lewerke is the opposite. Lewerke executed two nice zone reads, rushing for 27 yards on three carries against the Browns.

He didn't look bad throwing the ball, completing 11 of 19 pass attempts for 108 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked twice, one of which was a coverage sack, by the way, and he did throw once interception, but otherwise, Lewerke had a good afternoon.

7. At some point, running back Saquon Barkley has to get some team reps to get himself ready for the start of the regular season, right?

“We have not [made a decision]. We are going to the doctors and approach it as we get closer," Judge said.

"We will have conversations tomorrow and will definitely be increasing what he’s doing. I can’t tell you exactly what that’s going to be. I don’t know at this point if that’s going to include 11-on-11 or 7-on-7, or whatever it may be, but we’re going to make sure we’re very calculated with what we do."

Judge, who held Barkley out of any drills that involved the Browns players this week, admitted that Barkley is getting anxious about returning.

But at this point, the only way Barkley gets practice reps against the Patriots is if Judge--who remember still knows a fair amount of the players from his time as the team's special teams coordinator--can be confident of who's going to end up practicing against Barkley in the coming week.