Patricia Traina - SI.com/NY Giants Maven
First-and-10: Ten Thoughts Ahead of the Giants' Week 7 Game vs. Arizona
1. So just who is this Giants team?
Is it the group that we saw struggle against Dallas, Buffalo, and Minnesota; the one we saw roll over Washington and Tampa Bay; or the one that put up the good fight against the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots?
Fasten your seatbelts because we’re going to find out over the next four weeks when the Giants square off against the Cardinals, Lions, Cowboys, and Jets--that they should be on equal footing against.
To be frank, the outcome of this weekend’s game is the key. If the Giants, who enter this weekend’s game one game out of the NFC East lead, can beat the Cardinals, then I could see that game being a turning point in their season--a springboard if you will, to ensuring that the next several games will have a chance at meaning something.
If the Giants lose to the Cardinals and fall to 2-5, then I just don’t know if they'll be able to recover from that.
2. Every week when I do my Twitter Tuesday show on the LockedOn Giants podcast, I get a question (or is that complaint?) about head coach Pat Shurmur and when will management realize that he’s not the man to take the Giants to the promised land.
The answer is that so long as the locker room doesn’t go full meltdown on Shurmur (think Ben McAdoo like proportions), Shurmur is going to be around not only this year but next year, and potentially the year after that as well.
As I noted back when the Giants were looking for their next head coach, Shurmur’s expertise is his ability to develop quarterbacks.
At the time, I made the argument in his favor that because the Giants would soon be facing a crossroads at the quarterback position, they would smart to hire an offensive-minded head coach with experience developing quarterbacks.
Shurmur fits that bill, and sure enough, here he is working to develop Daniel Jones, the new franchise quarterback.
While I get it that this business is all about results, I also remember that the Giants didn’t fall into despair overnight. And on the flip side, they’re not going to rise from the ashes overnight-- it’s going to be a multiyear process.
What I think the Giants are going to be looking for from Shurmur, besides the development of Jones, is measurable progress. Does the team play hard for him every week, no matter what? (Answer: yes). Are they more competitive for the most part? (Answer: yes). And are they building on their won-loss total” (answer: to be determined).
Does Shurmur’s play-calling drive one mad at times? Yes, though to be fair, if his decisions that didn’t work out had gone the other way, then we probably wouldn’t be as hard on those that blow up in the team’s face.
And yes, there is still a lot more work to be done, but based on two dozen games, Shurmur has this team headed in the right direction.
3. I never got the chance to weigh in on the wave of opinions about Eli Manning’s prospects for the Hall of Fame after the Giants put what appears to be an end to his days as a starter because, at the time, I had just lost my father.
While I’m going to save my argument for Manning’s candidacy for when he retires (Spoiler alert: I think he’s Hall of Fame-worthy), there could be a potential fly in the ointment that I think is going to prevent him from getting in on the first ballot.
With younger (and more cost-effective) quarterbacks like Teddy Bridgewater (Saints) and Mason Rudolph (pre-injury, Pittsburgh) playing well for their respective teams, would anyone be surprised if Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger call it careers?
But getting back to the Saints and Steelers, if one or both of those teams decide to go with the younger and less expensive guy, the chances of Brees and/or Rothlisberger hanging around as a costly backup diminish.
And I just don’t see either going to another team to continue playing, which means I could see a scenario, much like what will probably be the case with Manning, where they all retire at the same time.
As much as I think Manning is Hall of Fame worthy, I have a hard time seeing him getting in ahead of Brees and, potentially, Rothlisberger if they both call it quits t the same time as Manning.
4. I have a gut feeling tight end Evan Engram, assuming he doesn’t have a setback during Saturday’s walkthrough (which I doubt he will) could be in for a very big day against the Cardinals.
Because Arizona’s defense has allowed a league-high 599 yards to tight ends, who, by the way, have posted 100-yard receiving games in three of the six games Arizona has played.
“We have to find an answer, and we have to be better in that area,” Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said this week.
“We know we are playing a great one in Engram, one of the most dynamic tight ends in the game, and we better come up with some answers.”
Engram already has two 100-yard games this season, those coming in Week 1 against Dallas and Week 3 against Tampa Bay (two teams that, interestingly, didn’t jam him off the line of scrimmage).
“I think our tight ends are always a big part of what we do,” Giants quarterback Daniel Jones said. “Those guys have made plays this year for us, so they’ll continue to be a part of what we do. I look forward to seeing them make some plays.”
From what I was able to gather in watching the film of the Cardinals, they don’t jam the tight end much. And who knows if they will, given that Engram is coming off a knee injury that kept him out of last week’s game.
If they don’t, Engram could have a very busy day in his first action in two weeks.
5. The topic of the NFL officiating has made its way into the news, and since it seems everyone is weighing in on it, I’d like to add my take.
For the most part, I think the officiating is okay--the officials, remember, call the rules as established by the competition committee.
However, what I’ve always had an issue with is how the officials don’t seem to be held accountable after a game for calls they make. By that I mean they’re off-limits to the media save for a designated representative of the PFWA and only if a special arrangement is made ahead of time
I’ve always thought that if coaches and players re going to be grilled for what they do or don’t do in a game, the same practice should apply to officials.
I will say this in defense of the officials. I think some of the rules have become too convoluted. Besides trying to figure out what’s a catch, I think back to last year during training camp when the media had its annual meeting with the officials to go over the new points of emphasis.
During that meeting, I asked for clarity regarding the new leading with the helmet rule. While I get the concept, what I didn’t understand is what happens if a player initially goes to lead with his shoulder, and then his intended target moves to where the defender now ends up "leading" with his head.
I never got a straight answer.
In the officials’ defense, how about the competition committee go back to simplifying the rules of the game? I think some of the game rules have become so complex to where there are more gray areas than ever before, which leads to judgment calls, and I firmly believe that’s a big part of the problem.
6. I’ve seen where several people are, shall we say, perplexed after head coach Pat Shurmur’s Friday press conference in which he created some ambiguity regarding the availability of running back Saquon Barkley and tight end Evan Engram.
I did a little digging into this, and a coach has to declare who is definitely out the Friday before a Sunday game. Still, there is nothing to stop a team from adding a player to the injury report on a Saturday if circumstances warrant it.
In other words, while all signs are pointing to Engram and Barkley both being ready to go, I think the reason why Shurmur didn’t want to come right out and say anything about their availability is because the team holds a walkthrough practice Saturday. They want to make sure that neither player suffers any kind of setback.
For those who don’t think it will happen, there have been instances when, on a Saturday, a player has popped up on the injury report.
In this instance, I think that while it’s 99.9% certain that Barkley and Engram will play Sunday, Shurmur is playing it cautiously for that .1% that the unthinkable should happen.
7. I’m so tired of people saying that the Giants let safety Landon Collins (this week’s NFC Defensive Player of the Week award winner, by the way) walk away and get “nothing” in return.
The Giants ARE getting something in return: a third-round compensatory draft pick.
And while a 2020 comp pick won’t be of much help to the 2019 team, who among us thought the 2019 team would be a strong playoff contender (assuming they even make the playoffs?)
8. Speaking of comp picks, I saw where there was some minor panic that the Giants would lose a seventh-round comp pick now that defensive end Kerry Wynn has been placed on injured reserve out in Cincinnati.
If I’m reading the chart on Over the Cap correctly, the Giants weren’t going to get a 2020 comp pick for Wynn anyway, so you can exhale if you were among those wondering how the Wynn transaction might be affected.
9. I saw a stat claiming that the Giants are doing more deep passing with Daniel Jones at quarterback then they were with Eli Manning.
Wanting to look a little deeper into this stat, I ran a query from Pro Football Focus to dig into this.
I pulled up Games 3-6 from both 2018 and 2019 to create an equal sample size. And what I found is that while from a percentage perspective, yes, the Giants have more deep passing attempts (14.3% to 11.4%) with Jones vs. Manning.
However, the percentages don’t tell the whole story.
Jones, in four starts, has completed three of 20 deep pass attempts (15%) for 145 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
Manning, in four starts from Weeks 3-6 last year, completed five of 17 deep pass attempts (29%) for 158 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions.
The numbers are pretty much the same and do not indicate that the Giants are attempting more deep passes this year than they were last year.
10. Put me in the growing camp that believes receiver Sterling Shepard should not, under any circumstances, be rushed back onto the field.
We’re talking about the long-term health and well-being of a young man who is just 26 years old, and who has a young family that is counting on him to be there for him for a very long time.
In Shepard’s case, I find it somewhat unsettling that twice his concussion symptoms were delayed (which meant that he was left in games to exacerbate the issue further).
I realize everyone is different, but because those symptoms didn’t show up until hours, if not days after the injuries occurred, no one should have any issue with the doctors making sure that Shepard is fully healed.
And if he’s not, then shut him down for the season. Sure, it’s probably not what he or anyone wants, but his long-term well-being is without question more important than football.
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