New York Giants Weekly Reader Mailbag: The "Roster Building" Edition

Welcome to another installment of our weekly mailbag.

Welcome to another installment of our weekly mailbag. To take part in the mailbag, you can do one of three things. The first is to tweet your questions to me @Patricia_Traina with the hashtag #askPtrain. 

If you have a Giants Country account (registration is free, in case you didn’t know-- just hit the FOLLOW button to register for your account), you can send your question to me by clicking the DIRECT MESSAGE option found under the hamburger menu at the top left corner of the page. 

Or, if you want to e-mail the question, send it to nygiantsmaven@gmail.com.

Hi Pat! Hope everything settles around the States soon and in the meantime stay safe!

My question is about roster building and the head coach influence in the decision-making. By not making a lot of trades, do you think Judge has more influence than his predecessors? #AskPTrain

— César Espejel (@Csr3_) November 6, 2020

What’s going on, Cesar? I hope you and yours are well. I do get the impression that Joe Judge is very involved in the roster-building process.

I always remember how at the combine when I asked Dave Gettleman about the defense, and he mentioned that there were a few specific kinds of players he needed to try to find for Judge and the coaching staff. So that told me that Gettleman does indeed work hand in hand with Judge.

Quite honestly, this should be the norm around the league. If your general manager and head coach aren’t on the same page regarding personnel, you might as well give up hope of ever being competitive.

It was never proven, but I always believed that Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese weren’t on the same page toward the end of Coughlin’s tenure here, and I base that on how Coughlin and his staff seemed to have little to no use for some of the players that were brought in by the personnel department.

You don’t see that happening with Judge and Gettleman. While I don’t know what Gettleman’s fate is after this season, I think it’s essential to have a setup where the general manager hears the head coach’s voice and works together toward the roster-building process.

#askptrain I'm having a hard time framing a question with these subjects: Daniel Jones, top-five pick Giants QB for 2021. If Jones averages a bit more than one turnover per game to the end how likely will Big Blue seek a replacement with a T-5 pick?

— Robbymack87 (@Robbymack87) November 6, 2020

What’s up, Robby? I read you loud and clear on this one. I don’t think that the Giants will give up on Daniel Jones solely on the turnover issue as remember back in the day, Eli Manning had problems with that, among other things that had people screaming about what a mistake the Giants made with trading for him.

The thing that concerns me most about Jones is the mental processing part of his game. By that, I mean if Option A is not there, can he correctly read the field and quickly decide where to go with the ball?

I think that’s probably the underlying issue behind some of his interceptions, that and he locks in on the receiver to where if I can see it, I’m sure the defense can see it as well.

These next eight games are going to be critical for Jones. In the first half of the season, you could make the argument that he was getting a better feel for a new offense that is nothing like what he ran last year.

But now there has to be some forward progress made. Can he do it? Jones works his tail off, but doing it in practice in a semi-controlled environment is a lot different than doing it during a live game.

From Harry M via e-mail

Given that the Giants weren’t able to trade Golden Tate, do you think he finished the season with them?

What’s up, Harry? I believe the Giants would like for that to happen, but that at the end of the day, it’s up to Tate. If he sulks or has an attitude, I can easily see Joe Judge telling Dave Gettleman to cut him.

But if Tate deals with the consequences of his actions and takes responsibility, then I think the two sides make a go of it. Either way, I don’t see Tate here next year given his contract and the likelihood that the Giants will pursue a No. 1 receiver. Thanks for the question.

What's up, Steve? I did a quick count, and it came to seven games.