Giants' Offense Working Toward Cohesiveness as Defense Sets the Pace in Camp

The best way to summarize the New York Giants training camp so far is that it’s been a tale of two units.

The defense has been ahead of the offense almost from the get-go, which is to be expected, but the hope was that by now, the offense would at least start to catch up.

That hasn’t exactly been the case. But offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said there has to be a degree of patience exercised.

“There's going to be highs and lows through this process. We talk about it as a staff, like you can’t – we have to make sure that as we go through this journey, we never get too high and we never get too low.

Today was an average practice, maybe below average. It wasn't good enough. He knows that. We know that. We'll put it on tape, but we also talk about success through struggles – there's going to be some struggles as we go through this now in training camp and during the season, but how do we react? When you can get it on tape, evaluate, and try to show them what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong, it happens quicker.

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Part of the problem has been quarterback Jaxson Dart’s struggles to adapt to the new offense, which has him working more under center. Dart has had some highs and lows as he works at his own pace, and Nagy said there has been forward progress.

“Every quarterback's a little bit different based on what you're doing in the offense,” Nagy said.

“I would say, if we're evaluating Jaxson, which we are, and you sit there and you look at – I just go back personally to OTAs, and when we were first teaching this thing, we spent phase two just kind of trying to teach this thing ground up in buckets and phases, and not necessarily plays.”

Meanwhile on the defensive side of the ball, coordinator Dennard Wilson has been generally pleased with how his unit is coming together, particularly against the run.

“We're connected up front right now. We're playing with good vertical knock-back. We're setting the edge,” he said.

“I think the defensive ends and outside linebackers have been outstanding in setting the edges, and we have some linebackers that fill gaps. They come downhill with a sense of urgency. They're big players. They're aggressive, and everybody's playing with their hat in their hands.

“The biggest thing is just their eyes. They know what they're looking at, and they're fitting accordingly. And if we have something that we mess up, we correct it, we make it right, and then we come out and execute again.”

Wilson is particularly excited about the variety of talent he has at his disposal.

“It's very exciting. We built a system here. Not just the coaches but the players as well. We put in a system that's in place that the system has a lot of complex things to it, but the system is easy for them,” Wilson said.

“It looks complicated to others, but it's easy for them because it's conceptual teaching. So, the joy of being able to get guys to move in different spots, they're running the same thing over and over. You don't know where it's coming from.”

“For me, it's just exciting to see these guys grow together, exciting for them trying to be detailed and disciplined every day and coming out here and flying around and flying to the ball as fast as they can.”

Participation Report

WR Jalin Hyatt (leg), WR Juju Smith-Schuster (knee), C John Michael Schmitz (concussion), OL Lucas Patrick (knee), and CB Paulson Adebo (unknown) were among those not spotted at practice. This was the second straight day Adebo didn’t practice in the team drills; he did do some light work in the individual session on Monday.

Over to the side with trainers were cornerback Greg Newsome II (knee) and Dru Phillips (knee), and receiver Malik Nabers (knee), the latter of whom worked with trainers for about 90 minutes.

The cornerback depth is becoming scary with Adebo, Phillips and Newsome dealing with injuries. While it’s still early enough in the week, it’s looking more and more that the starting cornerbacks in Saturday’s preseason opener against Minnesota will be Deonte Banks and rookie Colton Hood, with Ar’Darius Washington the likely candidate for the slot.

Banks has been having a strong summer, having built off a strong spring, and is a player we’re looking forward to seeing in live game action.

Continuing the participation report, inside linebacker Abdul Carter (hand/finger) and defensive lineman Chauncey Golston (head) returned to practice. Carter sat out Monday’s session while Golston left about midway through.

Rookie right guard Francis Mauigoa, who at one point during Monday’s practice had his neck checked by a trainer before returning to finish out the session, was kept out of team drills on Tuesday, replaced by Daniel Faalele.

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