Reader Mailbag: DeAndre Baker, Daniel Jones, the Start of Training Camp and More

#askptrain On Baker, do you think there is too much rush to judgement? I know 1st hand some prosecutors lie. Let the case play out b/4 Giants make a decision. Too much talent if Baker is found innocent & Giants let him go b/4 the case is over. Wait and see what happens. Agree?
— JOE (@JOE67769103) July 12, 2020

Joe, I’ve always operated under the “innocent until proven guilty” mantra, and I believe that’s what the Giants are looking to do here. Baker has yet to go to trial and I would think if the case isn’t resolved by the start of training camp, the Giants cannot afford to carry Baker on the 90-man active roster, not after telling him to worry about his legal issues he’s missed so much of the off-season program. I fully expect that he’ll end up the Commissioner’s exempt list.

@Patricia_Traina How is it that some teams just seem to print money and we always seem to be up against the cap? #askPTrain
— Matt (@nyk120) July 14, 2020

it’s called salary cap management—no great secret. Some teams do it well, and others do not. Over the last two years, the Giants have had issues because they’ve unloaded a lot of dead weight that resulted in dead money that hamstrung them.

But they have gotten much better with the cap management—I like how they structured their free-agent contracts this year as that shouldn’t result in massive dead money if they move on from those players. The other key is not overvaluing players, a problem that you could probably argue that the Giants have been guilty of in the past.

While no Lamar Jackson, DJ has shown good mobility. Do you expect Garrett to script plays specifically to use his legs? #askptrain
— pete m. (@pjmazz813) July 15, 2020

Absolutely. I’m expecting to see more RPOs this year that take advantage of Jones’ mobility, much in the same way the Cowboys took advantage of Dak Prescott’s mobility.

#askPtrain Is Evan Engram being asked to "take on defensive ends that outweigh him by 30 or more pounds" in part a reason for his bad luck with injuries?
— Tony Thomas (@BlackBanjotony) July 15, 2020

Hi Tony. Yes, I’ve stated that opinion multiple times in articles and podcasts. That’s based on my observations and what I’ve been told by people who in discussions about this topic agreed with me.

Hi Fuzz. The start of training camp was changed with the new CBA. It used t be 14 days before your first preseason game was scheduled; now, I believe it’s 49 days before your first regular-season game is scheduled. And no, the Giants can’t move up the reporting date. I believe they can (and are) staggering reporting, meaning the rookies can come in early, but the rest of the team cannot report before July 28, as I understand it.

#askptrain
So is there any real future with the Giants & Leonard Williams? I can’t see him ever producing enough to ever warrant somewhere around $20 a year (give or take $2mill). What’s the point of a 1 year rental? I get it (don’t like it. ) if they had signed him long term.
— Heng-O Sowilo (@HengOSowilo) July 15, 2020

You know what? That’s an excellent question, and I’m not sure what the answer is where the Giants are concerned. To my thinking, Leonard Williams is a complementary piece who will be asked to do multiple things. Does he do those things as well as say, Dalvin Tomlinson, who will also need a new contract after this year? I’m not so sure you can make that case.

I am sort of glad the Giants didn’t sign Williams to a long-term deal for reasons I’ve written before. Had they signed him, and he proved to be a bust in this new defensive system, they would have been stuck with him or worse yet, had they tried to move on, they’d have to eat dead money, the same way they did with Odell Beckham Jr. Not too many people are talking about it, but I think that’s a lesson the Giants learned.

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