New York Giants Training Camp Week 3 Storylines to Watch

As the Giants prepare to enter Week 3 of training camp, here's a look at some of the potential storylines coming down the pike.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 9, 2021 8:41 AM EDT

The New York Giants are coming off an event-filled week headlined by the overzealousness of the players on their first padded practice of the camp and a string of three veterans retiring over four days.

But lost in those storylines is the fact that head coach Joe Judge has been ramping up the team for what's going to be a big week ahead this week that includes the team's FanFest scrimmage Wednesday and then its first preseason game on Saturday night when the Jets come in for a "visit."

Judge and the Giants started to turn their attention to simulating more game-like situations last week. Still, the expectation is that this will continue as the team goes through an unpadded practice Monday and then padded practices Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We’re kind of getting away a little bit of the transition of drill to drill that you guys see in the first part of camp that we operate with," Judge said late last week. "We’ve got to get in this next couple of weeks and just play some football, get out there and let our guys operate."

Here's a look at some other potential storylines to watch for in Week 3 of Giants training camp.

Saquon's Status

The good news is that running back Saquon Barkley has not appeared to have any setbacks after slightly increasing his daily workload.

The even better news, is that Barkley will reportedly come off the PUP list this week.

“We’re going to have conversations on a daily basis about his rehab and conversations on a weekly basis at times on where we think he is coming up,” Judge said.

“In terms of the timetable, I’m not a doctor. When the medical team tells me a guy is good to go, I know he’s good to go.

“Sometimes we’ll have guys come out and they’ll say, ‘Hey, we got to limit this guy to these periods only today and phase him up’ and you see a lot of that day by day. In terms of a player like Saquon and a timetable coming back, he’s making daily progress. I know it sounds like a broken record, but that’s important for us to see coming off an injury like this. You want to make sure that it’s not push forward and take a step back.”

Last week, the NFL Network reported that Barkley would be back by Week 3 of the regular season, putting the running back on the field a year and six days removed from when he first suffered the injury.

His anticipated return off the PUP list this week could see that timetable expedited depending on how well Barkley responds to the next several weeks.

Can the Offense Be More Consistent?

Safe to say that the Giants offense has had far more rocky showings than glowing ones. And while that's not uncommon at the start of camp, the goal is to reduce the bad performances and give the coaches the belief that the needle is pointing in the right direction.

That wasn't the case last week. While the offense did have one day in which it was razor-sharp, the defense has continued to get the better of the offense. And while you'd like just to flat out give the defense full credit, the problem has been the offense has been sloppy in terms of mental mistakes, so much so that probably more offensive players have been sent on penalty laps than their defensive counterparts.

If ever the offense was going to start clicking--a challenge, no doubt, given the absences of Golladay, Barkley, and Rudolph--this week would be a good one for the mistakes and sloppiness to subside.

MORE: New York Giants Training Camp Week 2: Risers and Fallers

O-line Help on the Way?

The Giants made a pair of roster moves over the weekend, and no, none of them involved an offensive lineman.

But that doesn't mean that the team has ruled out adding some veteran depth to fill the voids left after Joe Looney and Zach Fulton retired.

"It’s our job to make sure we see who’s out there," Judge said. "We need depth on the line. One thing about the way we operate, to be honest with you, is we have to consider the numbers in what we do.

"We’ve got to make sure that we supplement different periods with different things that people need, but ultimately we can’t just keep piling reps on top of guys. We have to be smart about how we do it."

The Giants have been pretty consistent with churning the bottom of the roster, but in the case of Looney and Fulton, those were two guys who seemed to have a better than average chance of making the 53-man roster as reserves.

And with the options right now being somewhat limited, the Giants might have to wait until the other 31 teams start trimming their rosters.

"Whether it’s a veteran or a young guy, the important thing is to add a good football player that can help this team," Judge said. "We’ll work with anybody. If they’re going to come in here and they’re going to give it their all, and they’re going to do what we ask them to do, that’s a critical part of it right there.

"It’s important to bring in the right kind of people for the program. We’ve done a good job of bringing in guys who are good, solid people into the locker room and that always helps going forward. In terms specifically of the age, we’re just hung up on getting quality players in here. We’re not overly concerned with their years of experience in the league."

In addition to being on the lookout for new faces, Judge said the coaching staff remains committed to developing the younger, less experienced guys on the roster.

"Yeah, we’ll keep developing all the guys on our roster--that’s always our number one mission," he said. "These young guys are going to get an opportunity to play a lot of ball this year, a lot of ball through practice and a lot of ball through preseason, a lot of opportunities. It’s our job to make sure we put them in a position to take advantage of those opportunities going forward."

Kadarius' Korner

Last week, first-round draft pick Kadarius Toney returned to practice after ramping up following his bout with COVID. This week, it's anticipated that Toney will see even more snaps, with some of those snaps perhaps providing some insight into how the coaches might be thinking of deploying his unique skill set.

So far, Judge has been happy with how Toney's ramp-up process has gone and how the player is earning his snaps.

"I see a guy who’s doing a good job taking it from the meeting to the field. For any young guy, it’s important to demonstrate that you can just hear the call, relay it, line up and play," he said.

"He’s been really good in terms of transferring the material within the details within the assignment, and that’s been really good. I think he’s a guy that, obviously we’ve talked about before, this guy really does love football and shows up, and just his energy on the field, the way he smiles and goes about it. ... We’re still phasing him in a little bit but doing more and more each day. It’s all been positive."

MORE: Giants Training Camp Week 2: Reflections on a Wild and Crazy Week

Help on the Way?

With several Giants players unable to do much, if anything, since training camp started, Judge hinted that a few of those who have been sidelined are getting close.

"A lot of them are day by day right now, they’re all making progress," he said Friday. "We’ll see where they’re at right now. We’re trying to get a few of them through the weekend, see where they're next weekend. The goal is to get these guys that are coming back to ramp them back up, see if they can play in the Jets game."

Among those who are still on the PUP list are running back Saquon Barkley (knee), rookie cornerback Aaron Robinson (core muscle), tight end Kyle Rudolph (foot), and outside linebacker Oshane Ximines (hamstring). Outside linebackers Lorenzo Carter (calf), Elerson Smith (hamstring), and Ryan Anderson (NFI/back) are all thought to be making progress. Meanwhile, the Giants added a few new guys to the injury report last week, including running back Gary Brightwell (undisclosed), receiver Dante Pettis (undisclosed), cornerbacks Chris Milton (undisclosed) and Jarren Williams, and safety Montre Hartage (unknown).

Receiver Kenny Golladay (hamstring) isn't expected to practice this week, as his injury will reportedly keep him out between 2-3 weeks.

Fans in the Stands

Last year the giants played their home games in front of a bunch of empty stone-cold gray seats thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, that's going to change, starting with Wednesday's Fanfest event, the highlight of which will be a scrimmage.

Both Judge and the players have made no secret over their excitement to play in front of the hometown crowd. Last weekend, they got a small taste of that when they held a walkthrough practice in front of roughly 2,000 Newark area youth football participants. They'll get a more prominent taste of it Wednesday in front of approximately 50,000 people, followed by another sizable crowd Saturday night when they host the Jets.

"That’s actually a large part of how we’re going to focus,'' Judge said of his plans for practice. "We went through this initial install; you hear it all the time with the music being at practice. That’s not just for noise and trying to get the juices going; that’s for forced communication.

"So, we build it in through our individual teaching periods and starting next week we’re going to carry it over a lot to the team periods, as well. Anything that’s going to come up in a game, whether it’s crowd noise or blasting noise, just forces extra communication."

Bring on the Jets!

The Giants have been beating up on each other--literally and figuratively--for the better part of the summer, and at times, things getting a bit too intense for Judge's liking.

But this week, the Giants will finally get a chance to hit someone at a faster tempo without fear of being ordered to run goal-line to goal-line sprints mixed in with a series of rapid-fire pushups when they host the Jets Saturday night.

“I think they’re at a point in training camp right now that is very natural where they’re tired of beating up on each other,” Judge said. “I think they’re waiting to get to another opponent. I think every team in the league is at that point now. While it seems like it’s only been about two weeks of being here, it’s kind of like dog years. They come in every day, it’s a little bit of Groundhog Day to get working."

With the preseason shortened, the games will be more important than ever, with three rounds of roster cuts coming up, the first of which is happening August 17, when teams must trim from 90 to 85.

Judge, by the way, said the plan is to get as many young guys a look as possible in this weekend's game, given the shortening of the preseason schedule from four to three games.

"There are a lot of young guys who are going to play some ball this week. We’ll treat next week – typically, for the most part, it’s not 100 percent – for the most part, we’re going to make sure we’re giving the young players a strong chance to make an impression early on. We don’t have preseason Week 4 this year, where typically, many young players get to make a lasting impression on the backend of camp.

"We’ve got to make cuts, we’ve got to cut five after the first game and five more after the second. I want to make sure that we don’t move on from a player without giving him an opportunity to go out there and play as much football as he can and make a strong impression."