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Giants Friday Reader Mail Bag | Who's Kicking, Colin Kaepernick and More

Let's see what's in this week's mail bag.
Patricia Traina|

Hi Mike. I think the Giants are interested in bringing Golden back, but they weren’t interested in paying him like a No. 1 or “blue goose” pass rusher.  

I’m only guessing here, but what Golden showed in James Bettcher’s scheme was undoubtedly encouraging. He managed to accrue double-digit sacks that appealed to the Giants enough to where they potentially saw a fit for Golden in Patrick Graham’s scheme. 

But again, his asking price was likely an issue—if you’re going to generate a pass rush by committee, you cannot plunk down a small king’s ransom for one guy.

Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? Seriously, if Rosas is proven guilty of the accusations, he's likely looking at a multi-week suspension under the league’s conduct policy. (spoiler alert: on Monday's LockedOn Giants, my guest is attorney and sports law analyst Daniel Lust on the program and he provided some insight into the legal issues and ramifications for DeAndre Baker and Rosas).

As for kickers they're likely to bring in for tryouts, I would think Stephen Gostkowski will be among them for sure. I really haven't put together a list to be honest because I was working on other things this week and kickers do tend to be a dime a dozen. 

But as this story plays out, I'll probably take a deeper dive as I would be inclined to add kickers who have experience kicking outdoors in the northeast ahead of dome and warmer weather guys. 

Hi Rob. My guess is the only path for Dravon Askew-Henry with he Giants is for him to make the practice squad. Now keep in mind I haven’t seen him play, and I do not know the specific roles that the coaches have in mind for these players. 

With that said, if you look at the numbers and the depth chart, I can’t see Askew-Henry beating out the guys that will probably be ahead of him on the depth chart like Jabrill Peppers, Xavier McKinney, Julian Love, and Nate Ebner (listed as a safety despite being mainly a special teams guy).

But here is a piece of good news if it happens. There are discussions that the league might expand practice squads this year so that if COVID strikes down a group of players, there is a deeper pipeline standing by to replace them, as necessary.

The evaluation process will be the same, meaning that if you’re given opportunities, you better make the most of them. 

If you think about it, as preseason churns on, guys who don’t take full advantage of their opportunities tend to lose snaps anyway. So I don’t see that changing regardless of how long training camp and the preseason run.

And if anything, if I'm the coaches, I try to balance out my snaps in training camp and the preseason. For example, we all know what Saquon Barkley can do, so why not take a longer look at Javon Leake, Jon Hilliman and Wayne Gallman to see what they can do?

When I spoke with Coach Judge, he told me they were still int eh process of determining how they were going to distribute snaps and what criteria they'd establish. Ultimately though they want the best 53 men on the roster.

My guess is that Gallman’s roster spot is in jeopardy if Lavon Leake proves to be a decent return specialist. 

At this point the OTAs and minicamps would be done, and we’d have a rough idea as to what the unofficial depth charts might look like. We don’t have that, and when I spoke with Coach Judge, he didn’t want to commit to any kind of depth chart (though there are some things we can safely assume, such as Daniel Jones as the starting quarterback, Andrew Thomas being in the starting lineup, Saquon Barkley, etc.)

It's just too soon Tony to predict roster spots. It really is. I know that people have done the exercise. I even did a projection as well against my better judgment. But there are so many unknown factors--injury, performance, scheme, etc.--that make this a difficult exercise. 

Sean, I’m personally in favor of the Giants signing any player who could help the team win. 

Now to your point about McCoy, if the Giants cut him, they’d have to eat $1.7 million in guaranteed money. While that’s not a significant amount, I think it would be malpractice to cut a guy that they recently signed and gave guaranteed money to. 

You’re also incorrect in your assumption that if the Giants cut McCoy that he’d bring a comp pick if he signed elsewhere. Over the Cap has a thorough explanation of how comp picks are determined and who is eligible that you might want to peruse.  

In a nutshell, the deadline for comp picks passed last month, But even then, the way it works is you'd have to lose a UFA to another team, and cutting a guy from your roster doesn't count.  

Hi Ethan. To paraphrase what head coach Joe Judge told me during our one-on-one call this week, Baker is still on the team’s roster. They are allowing him to resolve some serious charges against him without having to worry about football. 

With that said, I think the more time Baker misses, the further he’s going to fall behind, and the less likely he’s going to be able to contribute this year. 

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Hey JDJ, that’s a good question. My guess is it all depends on how much of a preseason they get. Remember, there were no on-field workouts in the spring for players to work in controlled environments on executing the offense. 

So I can’t see where it would make sense for Jones, in just his second season, to not play at all this preseason when he’s trying to learn a new system. Barkley, perhaps, but with things so up in the air, I can’t get a good feel for what the Giants may or may not do.

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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