What We Learned Following Giants' First Preseason Game

There were plenty of good things to emerge from the Giants' 21-16 loss to the Detroit Lions, but this team still needs a lot of work.

Author:
Gene Clemons
Publish date:
Aug 12, 2023 2:44 PM EDT

In this story:

New York Giants

After a full offseason and training camp of competing against themselves, the New York Giants finally had the opportunity to compete against another opponent.

The Giants lost their first preseason game to the Detroit Lions 21-16, and although they lost, there are many things fans can take away from the first live competition of the season.

That first preseason game allowed people to learn some information about the team. Because so many starters were not playing, it does not tell the entire story, but there are specific things people can learn from this game.

The Surprising Defensive Backfield

Xavier McKinney, Adoree' Jackson, Aaron Robinson, and Nick McCloud did not even play in the first preseason game. Still, given how the depth played, you might not have noticed that much of a drop-off from the defensive backfield.

We can immediately tell two things about the Giants' defensive back group. First, they all seem long, athletic, and diverse. The second is that there is an abundance of them.

To improve the defensive backfield, the Giants front office has constantly tinkered with the talent, and now there are so many defensive backs on this team that the combinations are endless.

This team's length makes the secondary look crowded, and no passing window looks open. That is an improvement over previous seasons, where there always seemed to be open spaces in the secondary. The cornerback depth is deep, and there seems to be an endless supply of safeties.

Receiver Competition Has Heated Up

The Giants rolled out what appeared to be the second and third-team receivers, and they operated as though they were starter quality. Isaiah Hodgins and David Sills V are fighting to move up the chain, while slot receivers Jamison Crowder and Cole Beasley operated as though they have been in the offense for years.

Crowder and Beasley hauled in six passes on six targets. That is high-level efficiency. This happened while Darius Slayton, Darren Waller, Paris Campbell, Sterling Shepard, and WanDale Robinson stood on the sidelines watching.

The combinations are endless, and it is anyone's guess how it will play out.

O-Line Depth is an Issue

This first preseason game was a great opportunity for the offensive line to show what it could do. With three starters--Andrew Thomas, Mark Glowinski, and Evan Neal--not suiting up, other linemen had the chance to show they could be viable depth.

That was not the case, as there are even more questions regarding the depth. The Lions sacked the Giants quarterbacks five times, and most of the sacks came through guys getting beat on basic speed rushes.

That performance raised the issue of what the team would do if the starters went down. The starting line is still a work in progress, so the fact that the group on the field in the first preseason game gave up so many pressures and allowed the Lions to get home multiple times is concerning.

Pass-rushing Depth is a Concern

The Giants did not dress any regular contributors in their defensive front seven. The defense was 13th in sacks last season, and most of those sacks came from guys not dressed for the first preseason game.

What was left was a bunch of guys who needed to prove they could get to the quarterback. Outside of a couple of pressures by Tomon Fox and a late-game sack by Habakkuk Baldonado, pressure on the Lions' quarterbacks was scarce.

Part of that could be due to how vanilla the defense was in the game, but it highlighted that without the defensive staff scheming up a way to get to the quarterback, these second and third units struggled to win 1-on-1 battles.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, we will learn more in the second preseason game, where you believe more of the starters would play, and give us a look at what we can expect to see when the squad fires it up for real against the Cowboys in Week 1. Until what we know from Week 1 of the preseason is that we need to know a lot more.