Friday is a big day for the New York Giants. Rookie head coach Joe Judge has led his team through a number of Zoom meetings, followed by fitness work, practices in shorts and t-shirts, then shells and finally this week fully padded practices.
Without preseason games to hone skills or get a real read on how players react to game situations, the Giants will do the next-best thing. During their 10:45 a.m. practice at the Quest Diagnostics Center, the Giants will hold an old-fashioned intra-squad scrimmage.
About a week ago, a judge said Friday’s inspection would “look very similar to any high school and college student in America.”
The misunderstanding will be on one side. The defense will be on the other side. If the situation demands it, special teams will be played.
“Tomorrow there will be a lot to put the ball down and play out,” the judge said on Thursday. ‘We may put the ball more in a red area and let it play in the red area, or we may put it in a back-up situation and let it play out of this zone. But tomorrow it will definitely be much more than just being conscious on the field, looking at the sticks, what it is down and distance. Jason (Garrett) calls it, Pat calls it, T-Mac (Thomas McGaughey) have his unit ready to go when it’s third. Go down to fourth and let’s just go ahead and play it out and see how smart our players can react, see how physically they can play, and see how we can maintain our basic skills and performance through a higher intensity. “
Judge has often talked about the need to put players in competitive situations. That’s important to prepare both for the regular season, scheduled to begin Sept. 14 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and to get more information from the referee and coaching staff as they try to put together the regular season 53-man roster and training group for 16 man.
“We are looking to give everyone the opportunity to participate and ban their resume,” Judge said.
Here are a few things you will really want to look into when checking out.
I will not observe Jones’ obsession statistics (although I will probably follow them). Or flip over any good or bad throw. There will be some of both. I want to see how comfortable Jones seems to be calling Jason Garrett’s offender and performing in a live situation for the first time.
Judge said earlier this week that Jones has so far shown “a command in the huddle”.
‘I see improvement every day. I see a command inside the huddle, where he is aware of not only what we are calling, but he knows the situation in which we call it, “said judge.” I see someone who understands why Jason calls the scene that he at that time and how the pieces fit, and I see a lot of confidence in his eyes as he goes to the line of scrimmage.
“He still has a long way to go to reach his potential, but he’s working on arriving every day and it’s fun to watch.”
We’ll get a glimpse of that Friday morning.
Offensive line game
With the Giants, is “offensive line stuff” not always worth watching and talking about?
First round pick Andrew Thomas, who will almost certainly be the left-hander (shhhhhhhh!) Although the Giants will not tell you that he’s the left-hander and NFL rules will forbid you to really tell him he’s on the left approach is during the view, fare?
Thomas has had ups and downs this week against Lorenzo Carter and other Giants passersby. He will have all season ups and downs as a rookie approach in the NFL.
Can Nick Gates do enough to wrestle the starting center job away from Spencer Pulley or Cameron Fleming’s right tackle job?
Can the Giants open any holes for running rain? Sure would be nice if Saquon Barkley didn’t get most of his yardage by 2020.
There are backup jobs available. Can Eric Smith consider himself one? How about undrafted interior linemen Kyle Murphy and Tyler Haycraft?
Young wide receivers
The Giants have drafted Austin Mack, Derrick Dillon and Binjimen Victor, fighting for jobs, along with David Sills V, CJ Board and Alex Bachman. I’m interested in who gets reps with which groups, and whether one of these guys separates from the package. Board had a great practice on Monday. Sills does appear to be catchy, in general, it seems to have consistently toasted Grant Haley.
Cornerback conundrum
Outside of veteran James Bradberry, there is no single, upright, quality cornerback on the Giants roster. How that situation shakes will be a work in progress and it will not be resolved on Friday. However, we will get some early clues as to what Judge and Defense Coordinator Patrick Graham thinks.
First, how healthy is Corey Ballentine? He sat out of practice on Thursday, two days after an injury scare, in Tuesday’s physical exercise.
What about fourth-round pick? Will he work in the lock? Outside? Both?
How often will Graham lock up a security guard like Julian Love?
Can someone like Prince Smith, Jarren Williams, Christian Angulo or Dravon Askew-Henry make a push for playtime?
I wrote earlier in the week that the cornerbacks had a rough go during 1-on-1 sources on Monday. Thursday I asked judge if he saw progress and what he hopes to get from that group in Friday’s checks. Here’s part of his long, pretty technical, answer:
“We are looking for a level of improvement every day. If we go into today, we will turn on the band. There are things to highlight positively and there are things that coaches often correct where everyone needs to learn from. They first have to start with the scheme that fits into it, and that’s really what charge they play, where their help is, and how they match up on a specific play. Second, it is the technique that suits each type of coverage we have. Different types of men require different types of coverage. Different types of zones require different types of coverage and charging. Within each there is something different.
“The biggest thing we are looking for is just constant improvement day by day. For every man, it’s a little different. Some guys need to be better on the control line, some guys in the deep part of the field, some guys need to respond to the breaking and movement of the receiver. We try to get them all on the same page across the entire map and make them consistent throughout the entire play. “
All rookies, of course
We get to see Xavier McKinney, Matt Peart, Shane Lemieux and the rest of the rookies in as close to live action as we will get for the regular season. It’s always exciting to see these guys for the first time.
I’ve said it before, but it honestly does not take long to figure out who hears and who has a heart in the headlights.
How well the Giants work
Considering how detailed Judge and the Giants have been, I do not expect there to be too many problems here. However, this is the first time that this team and this coaching staff will work together in something that resembles a gaming environment.
It will be interesting to see how well the Giants get game calls, how well they get to the line of scrimmage and games, how well they function on defense, how well they get sub-packages and special team units on and off the field. .
All in all, Friday should be an interesting day in East Rutherford.
