New York Giants Mailbag: The Deep Ball, Daboll's Demeanor, and More

To send us a letter for our Saturday morning mailbag, see the link at the bottom of the page or tweet to @Patricia_Traina with the hashtag #askPtrain. Letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness. We'll answer as many letters as possible, but we reserve the right to bypass answering a letter for whatever reason.

#askptrain Parcell's Giants would fly out on Friday for games on the West Coast. This gave the players a full day to get acclimated to time change. Is the current team doing that?
— @icarus82247 🗽⚓️🌵🌻⚜️ (@icarus82247) October 3, 2024

No. They leave the day before the game and fly home right after. I believe league rules say the visiting team needs to be in the city where the game is to be played no later than 24 hours before kickoff.

Without Nabers, then what for the offense? Does Hyatt play a bigger role?
— Ted Tompkins (@ttompkins51) October 3, 2024

To be determined, of course, as we don’t know the actual game plan. Hyatt did see an increase in his practice reps. Brandon Olsen covered the options for a Nabers-less offense in this article.

#askPTrain. Pat, decided to asked a few questions. Is the Buffalo blueprint that is being used to build the giants working? Is Daniel Jones struggles with the deep ball due to injuries? Lastly, do the Giants have the Kerry Collins of the 90’s and 2000’ to bridge to a new QB?
— Bill Frantz (@feihc53) October 4, 2024

Thanks for the questions, Bill. You see the results of the offense, right? Pretty safe to say the blueprint isn’t working like it did in Buffalo, but the question that needs answering is why. Is it the quarterback? A lack of a running game? An over-dependence on one receiver? A tweaked scheme?

Remember, the Giants have personnel different from the Bills, so you can’t use the same blueprint; you have to adjust.

Jones claims he’s physically fine, so we must take his word for it. I mean, in the summer, he was overthrowing guys, and now he’s underthrowing them, so unless something happened in a game where he took a hit to his shoulder, we don’t have enough evidence to say there is something physical affecting his play.

As for a bridge quarterback, that’s to be determined. Is that guy Drew Lock or Tommy DeVito, both free agents after this year? I don’t know the answer to that.

Good or bad, what’s been the most surprising about the Giants so far this season?#askPTrain
— Ed Helinski 🇺🇸🇵🇱 (@MrEd315) October 3, 2024

The offensive line. That unit is playing far better than I thought it would, considering it didn’t have any snaps together. I think offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo and assistant offensive line coach James Ferentz (let’s not forget about him) have done a masterful job with that group.

Bricillo and the players will probably all agree they have a lot more work to do, but I don’t hear many people complaining about it, and I think credit goes to the players who banded together and are making that work.

#askptrain First, thanks for all the coverage you give us Giants fans. Last week we saw a facemask called on Bellinger when he was the victim. What would you think about extending coach’s replay challenges to include penalties of 15 yards or more?
— Kris Kauffeld (@dublk52) October 4, 2024

Kris, ‘fess up. You listened to my Friday podcast segment, “If I Were NFL Commissioner,” because I said the exact same thing.

The coaching staff is down on Deonte Banks. Any chance that Adoree Jackson replaces him if things go bad again? #askPtrain
— Mark Wysolmierski (@MWysol) October 4, 2024

Mark, I wouldn’t say the coaching staff is down on Deonte Banks to the point where they would consider replacing him with Adoree’ Jackson. How will that fix anything? Banks needs the reps; sitting him won’t solve the issues. He just has to be receptive to coaching and play better. It’s as simple as that.

Why won't Brian Daboll open up the passing game? Every play seems designed for only a 3- 5-yard gain. Where's Theo Johnson, Hyatt, or Nabers? -- Ken R.

Ken, I’m not sure what you’re expecting volume-wise, but no offense throws the ball deep on most of its passing plays. For what it’s worth, per NextGen Stats, Jones has attempted deep pass attempts on 9.7% of his throws, his highest percentage since his rookie season (11.5%).

Breaking that down even further, per PFF, Jones has attempted 15 passes of 20+ yards and completed three. He has thrown one interception among them and has one drop by his receivers. And of his deep pass attempts, two were considered turnover-worthy plays.

Malik Nabers has run nine deep (20+ air yards) routes in four games, averaging 33.5 yards per reception and with a 22.2% catch rate.

Again, not sure what kind of numbers you’re looking for, but they have tried the deep ball. They’re just not connecting as constantly as they’d like.

What are you hearing this year about Daboll's sideline demeanor? Are the position / assistant coaches happy with him? -- James D.

Absolutely nothing, James. No news is good news. Daboll is doing less cork popping on the sideline, though I have no idea what is being said on the headset. But I do think he’s a lot calmer than he was in the past.