New York Giants Reader Mailbag: The "Solutions Anyone?" Edition

As the losses pile up for the Giants, so too do the questions about whether this team is heading in the right direction.

No. Next year’s receiver class is shaping up to be dripping with talent. That’s the direction you go. You build for the future.

Do you see Gettleman trading for an OL at any point this season?
— 🅱️en Harris (@benha77is) October 6, 2020

Hi Ben. This team has already given up a fifth-rounder and a seventh-rounder. It’s not going to have any comp picks next year.

Unless you do a straight player for player swap, which I don’t see happening unless there’s an injury, why would trading for an offensive lineman even be considered, especially if it involves draft picks?

I’ll confess that I didn’t see that move coming with Coleman. No one ever came out and said why, but I remember at one point head coach Joe Judge, talking about adding team speed following the Coleman transaction.

It also might be worth noting that no one picked up Coleman since he was let go by the Giants, so perhaps his recovery from his injury wasn’t as “complete” as we initially thought?

I think in trying to answer this, we need to ask how many times the Giants have been within striking distance of the end zone. By “striking distance,” I mean the red zone, and luckily, I happen to have that stat.

Why am I using the red zone? I do not think the Giants pass protection, or Daniel Jones is still at the point where the line can hold its block for longer than maybe a second or two, and I certainly haven’t seen consistency in Jones looking beyond his first read.

As the red zone is a shorter area of the field, I think using that stat is a good place to start.

According to Team Rankings, The Giants have scored touchdowns in the red zone 20% of the time—dead last in the league.

They have been zero for four in their last two games inside the red zone (notice they’ve only been there four times in the last two games); and for the season, they’ve only had two successful red zone drives (two of 10, hence the 20% conversion rate).

Taking all this a little further, who on this team can separate with any consistency? Maybe Darius Slayton, but he’s been quiet.

So I think the short answer is it’s been a combination of things—not getting within striking distance, the receivers not separating (this team DESPERATELY needs a No. 1 receiver), and just the overall play of the offense.

#askPtrain do you think that the Giants have relied to heavily on the George Young succession of GMs? Accorsi worked for Young. Jerry Reese and Gettleman both worked for Accorsi. Chris Mara is in personnel. Not much fresh influence going on.
— Phil Marshall (@prmpar70) October 6, 2020

Phil, I think there is something to your theory. If the game is changing by generation, shouldn’t roster-building reflect those changes as well? What I find ironic about his whole process is there seems to be a leaning toward comfort level versus trying something new.

By that, I mean the Giants have gone with guys they know who, as you pointed out, all came from the same “GM tree” for the sake of stability. Yet I think we can all agree that this organization has been anything but stable in its football aspect.

So if you’re wondering, yes, I absolutely would like to see the Giants go outside of the organization for their next general manager.

I know a few years ago they brought in Martin Mayhew, who had been with the Lions, and I had wondered at the time if he would succeed Jerry Reese if the Giants kept sliding downhill. Mayhew left the organization after a year, so we never got to find out.

This is a hard one to answer Jay because there is no one answer other than to say it’s been a combination of everything. Only the coaches know how much of the playbook they had to scrap due to the Barkley injury.

As for Jones and his decision making, I go back to the year after the Giants parted with Kevin Gilbride and brought in Ben McAdoo as their offensive coordinator.

Back then, if you remember, Eli Manning, who had been in the league for more than ten seasons, would eventually admit that it took him a while to feel comfortable in McAdoo’s system since it was so different than what Gilbride had run for years.

So yes, I do think a comfort level is part of the issue, which is why I believe the Giants are going to be patient with Jones for at least the next year.

What, if anything can be done to get Engram going? All we hear is about how talented he is, how much of a weapon he could be, but we've had 3 OCs and no one has been able to capitalize on that talent.
— Oscar Nieves (@nievesmartir) October 9, 2020

Hey Oscar. For one, I’d have Evan Engram do less in-line blocking, and I’d have him move around the formation more, maybe even send him into the seam against linebackers and safeties, which should be a mismatch.

The Giants have used him more in the slot this year than in years past (that likely due to Sterling Shepard’s absence), yet they have only thrown to Engram in the slot 11 times out of 83 slot snaps. Wild, right?

As for being split out wide, in four games, Engram has only lined up split outside 30 times. That means he still sees a lot of in-line snaps—a few too many for my liking.

What are the chances Sterling Shepard plays this week?
— MarqWill (@darealness17) October 9, 2020

None. Shepard isn’t eligible to return from IR until next week.

#askptrain as a DieHard fan w/ season tickets who feels like this is the seventh year in a row, I know we had the one blip of 2016 where my season is over before November even comes what does a fan like me have to look forward to this year other than conversations about TL?
— Eric Campan (@EricBuildsBest) October 9, 2020

Eric, here’s how I’m getting through another miserable start to the season. I’m studying Joe Judge’s trends—what he says, what pans out, how he thinks.

This is all stuff that hopefully if I can figure out, it will lead to some clues down the line when hopefully there will be such a thing as meaningful games played in after September.

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