New York Giants: Preseason Game 3 Musings

Some leftover thoughts from the New York Giants final preseason game.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 30, 2021 9:33 AM EDT

The preseason is in the books and the winless record posted by the Giants should be the least of anyone's concerns right now.

Shoddy play by the offensive line in the three preseason games is a concern--make that a big concern. The continued boneheaded mistakes by quarterback Daniel Jones is another on-going concern.

The Giants still have a lot of work to get done in the two weeks leading up to their first regular season game on September 12. It's not impossible to make big strides, but I might feel a little better had there been fewer valleys in the progress shown by the units this summer then there were.

Some more thoughts.

1. Head coach Joe Judge hasn’t made many decisions with which I have disagreed.

Well, the season hasn’t started yet, and you can add another decision by Judge to the small list of decisions he’s made that I disagree with: the decision not to play the starters for at least a quarter of action in the second preseason game.

Judge, who at the time tried to justify the decision by pointing out that the players had gotten some quality work in against the Cleveland Browns during their joint practice, finally put the Giants starters on the field against the Patriots. As you’d expect for their preseason debut, the offense looked about the same as it might have looked had it played in the first preseason game.

In other words, not good. The Giants offensive line, working with a rotation (another thing I don’t necessarily agree with, which I’ll get to in a moment), gave up two sacks and three quarterback hits.

There were virtually no holes for the running backs to exploit, the Giants' ground game averaging 2.8 yards per carry, and oh, did I mention the backbreaking turnover in the end zone when Jones’s pass intended for Evan Engram was picked off.

I know, I know. It’s preseason. The game doesn’t count. I’m not bothered by the score as much as I’m bothered by the fact that the clock has run out on the preseason to resolve the issues with the offensive line and turnovers, and they’re still popping up.

But I digress. My original disagreement was with Judge’s decision not to play the starters until the third preseason game. And I’m sorry I don’t want to hear about GPS data and workloads because hey, on a good day, it’s not out of the question for an offense, for example, to be on the field for 70+ plays if things are going well.

In his postgame interview, Judge, specifically speaking about Daniel Jones, seemed to have slight regrets in not getting him out there in the game against the Browns.

"It would’ve been nice to get him on the field last week. I made my decision for the reason I did, I think it was the right decision for what we had to do going forward," he said.

Judge himself has said there's no substitution for live game reps. He might have had his reasons for not playing Jones and the starters, and it is what it is.

But if the only way a player is going to get better is to go out there and face live reps, then I think his decision left something to be desired.

2. I mentioned in the previous point that I’m not sure I agree with, and that is this rotation with the first-team offensive line.

I understood why Judge did so last year, what with here being no spring football and no preseason. But unless something has changed, it’s still a good idea to give whoever will be on your starting offensive line game reps together instead of pulling guys in and out of the lineup.

And for those who say, “Well, that’s just Judge trying to see what he has,” the concerning thing for me is that this is coming with veteran players, not guys who are in an NFL lineup for the first time in their lives.

Of course, that could also mean that the Giants coaches just aren’t sure about the offensive line at this point, two weeks before the regular-season opener. And if that’s the case, then they’re certainly not alone.

But back to this rotation. If, as Dave Gettleman said earlier in the spring, the only way for this line's members to get better is play saps, then how is planning a rotation, which Judge said he intends to do at right tackle, supposed to help Matt Peart get into a groove?

3. I have an updated (and final) initial 53-man roster projection dropping today. Still, I wrote of my concern about the tight end position in hat projection and how if I were a betting person, I wouldn’t take the odds of Evan Engram and Kyle Rudolph making it through a 17-game season together.

Well, Engram is now dealing with a calf injury, one in which he was quickly ruled out even before getting to the locker room, where he was to be evaluated further.

And while you never want to see a guy get injured—Engram, for what it’s worth, had worked his tail off this off-season and this summer to address his bad case of the dropsies last season—it looks like my concerns about the durability of the tight ends could be recognized.

The good news, as I pointed out in my roster projection, is that at least the Giants have more options at receiver this year to where they might not have to rely as heavily on 12-personnel this year as they did last year when they ran that personnel package on 27 percent of their offensive plays.

That said, with the offensive line still a big question mark and the tight ends’ contribution in blocking a necessary evil, I fully anticipate general manager Dave Gettleman and company to be on the lookout for reinforcement at that position.

4. Daniel Jones does a lot of things well--that's not his problem.

The problem since Day 1 has been this pressing that he feels he needs to do to force things that aren't there. And by doing that, he ends up making mistakes at the worst possible times.

I've always said from the get-go that the day Jones morphs from a game manager to a game-winner, that's when we'll all know he'd truly arrived.

Right now? He's still very much a game manager who shows the potential of being something much more. But as we all know, potential doesn't mean squad if one doesn't reach it.

5. I admire left tackle Andrew Thomas for stepping up to the podium postgame to address an ugly showing for him.

As has always been the case, Thomas was as candid as a person could be, saying, "I started off a little slow. There are some things I’ve got to improve on; my hand placement, staying wide on my set and keeping the depth with the pocket."

I got to thinking about Thomas's journey from Georgia to the NFL. Coming out of school, Thomas was widely regarded as one of if not the top offensive tackles in the draft class.

Then he gets to the NFL and his rookie season takes on a bit of a rollercoaster type of feel, admittedly against some top pass rushers (not an excuse as if you're an NFL tackle, you're going to see some top pass rushers).

Toss in the change in the changes he's had to endure with having three different position coaches in a little over one season, and I have to wonder if Thomas has found that comfort level in doing what's asked of him technique-wise.

"I think I made improvements, but there are a lot of things that I still need to work on," he said.

"I’m trying to fix those things in camp, just hand placement and just being very consistent in my set. Sometimes I do it the right way, sometimes it might not be to my liking. I’m just trying to be as consistent as possible."

I can't help but wonder if the lack of consistency in his technique is a result of all the different coaching voices he's had that have him maybe swimming a bit aimlessly while he sorts it all out?

Regardless of what it is, here's hoping Thomas gets it all down pat sooner than later.