NY Giants Mailbag: Early Camp Impressions, Receiver-QB Combos, and More

Want to get in on our weekly mailbag? You can do so here, or post your questions on X (formerly known as Twitter) to @Patricia_Traina, hashtag #askPTrain. Letters may be edited for clarity/length.

Who’s looking like a million bucks and who’s looking like chump change so far in Giants training camp?#askPTrain
— Ed Helinski 🇺🇸🇵🇱 🌴 (@MrEd315) July 25, 2025

Ed, we’re three days into training camp as I write this, and the pads don’t come on until Monday, so I’m a little reluctant to pass any kind of definitive judgement. That said, edge Abdul Carter, receiver Malik Nabers, cornerback Nic Jones (three interceptions so far), and quarterback Russell Wilson are among those who have looked consistent.

My biggest concern right now, as I noted in yesterday’s camp report, is the offensive line, but again they’re not in pads so I don’t think it’s truly fair to put them in the “chump change” category.

Why did you forget Kyle Rote who wore #44 for the Giants? I knew him personally and he is my favorite Giants player ever. -- Dave L.

Dave, please go back and re-read the piece.

Hey Pat, on offense really the only change is the QB. Are there any stats that show our WR’s played well last year but ultimately the QB was the issue?
— Kris Kauffeld (@dublk52) July 25, 2025

Great question Kris!. I did manage to find some stats that I compiled. Now before I go into them, what I did was I limited the stats to just the top three receivers (Nabers, Slayton, and Robinson). I only looked at Jones, Lock and DeVito. And while I pulled all the stats related to how each quarterback-receiver did, I looked to see which quarterback got the best out of each receiver. did best

The winner? Drew Lock. Lock got the most out of Nabers in terms of yards per reception (14.1) and yards after catch (6.8). Lock also got the most out of Slayton in yards per reception (5.3), but Slayton only caught 31.6% of the passes Lock threw to him. And Robinson averaged 4.5 yards after catch when Lock threw the ball to him.

Getting back to Nabers, he ran slightly twice as many routes with Jones at quarterback than he did with Lock as the quarterback. Nabers had a catch reception rate of 66.3% with Jones throwing him the ball versus a 58.2% catch rate with Lock throwing it.

Not sure what other data you were interested in, so if there's something else you want to know as a follow-up, you know the drill!

Is there lingering concern about Graham gano? Is he going to get hurt again!?
— JOEdell Beckham Jr (@JOEdellBeckham) July 25, 2025

I can’t predict the future regarding whether a player will get injured, but what I can tell you is that while I believe they would like Gano to be the kicker, they appear to be leaving the door open for a competition.

Gano, as I’ve noted before, hasn’t been as solid on field goals of 40+ yards the last two seasons. Now, before I give you the stats, I understand he’s had injury-shortened seasons, but my philosophy, as well as that of the coaches, is that if you’re healthy enough to be out there and play, you should be able to do your job.

Let me address the injury situation first. In 2018, he dealt with a left knee injury which I believe cost him two games before he landed on IR for the rest of that season.

In 2019, his final season with the Panthers, he landed on injured reserve and was released in July 2020.

When he came to the Giants in 2020, he looked no worse for the wear. In his first three years with the Giants, he was 44 of 51 (86.2%) on field goal attempts of 40+ yards. Over the last two seasons, however, he is 12 of 17 on field goal tries of 40+ yards (70.5%).

I do think the Giants are hoping he becomes “Mr. Automatic” once again, but the sad reality might be that Father Time is starting to catch up with him to where he’s just not the kicker he once was.

We shall see how things go this season, as I do believe he’ll be the kicker, barring any injuries. However, considering he has the second-highest cap number among kickers this year, I would think the expectations are high.

@Patricia_Traina what's the one under-the-radar thing about the Giants this year that should wake up checked-out fans like me? #askPTrain
— Mike Ennis (@biketennis) July 25, 2025

Cam Skattebo. I think fans are really going to like this young man once he gets going in the offense.

Have the Giants done anything to address the fact that they’re amongst the most injured teams every year? Or is it just bad luck?
— Danny Dime$ (@DannyK731) July 25, 2025

Danny, the Giants revamped their strength and conditioning staff in the offseason, partly because one guy left and partly to go in a different direction. Supposedly, they’ve also tweaked other processes related to keeping players healthy, but Brian Daboll, for whatever reason, doesn’t really disseminate that information, so I don’t know exactly what they changed.

I do think that, to a certain degree, injuries are a result of the violent nature of the game. Aaron Schatz did a breakdown of Man Games lost, and believe it or not, the Giants ranked 17th in the league last year, so they weren’t the most injured team in the league nor were they top-10.

The Ravens were the most injured team in the league, and yet they went to the playoffs. So what does that tell you? Depth is a HUGE asset to have, and the Giants just didn’t have good enough depth for when injuries did occur.

How long do you think it’ll take for dart to fix his “slow processing”, or whatever it is that’s causing him to hold the ball - if it does get fixed?
— BigJones(?)Energy (@BigJonesEnergy) July 26, 2025

I don’t think we can set a specific time for this, as it's not like baking a cake, if you know what I mean. I think it’s essential for art to receive as many live reps as possible, both in the preseason and during the season. I think that’s why the Giants have Dart competing with Jameis Winston for QB2.

As I’ve noted before, if Dart ends up as QB3, that means he’s not getting into games, even in a mop-up role, unless the two guys ahead of him on the depth chart can’t play. And that’s not going to help him.

The Giants can simulate the game speed and scenarios all they want in practice with Dart, but until he goes out there and faces the real things, he’s going to continue being a work in progress.

The other thing I’ll add is that he has to be a little less reluctant to make mistakes in practice. While you don’t want to be a turnover machine, you’re never going to get a feel for what throws you can make and what ones you can’t unless you try.

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