The New York Giants will begin training camp next week when the players report to East Rutherford on July 26. Rookies already reported to the Giants facility on Tuesday as the organization prepares for a 2022 season that comes with plenty of questions.
Neither of New York’s two football clubs is expected to make much noise this season, but the Giants begin with plenty of focus on the new head coach and general manager duo and the spotlight on quarterback Daniel Jones. A revamped offensive line as well is sure to give fans hope for improvement as well after the team went 4-13 in 2021.
Here are a few storylines that amNewYork will be watching when camp opens up next week.
Where things stand with Daniel Jones
Just about everyone seems to have a viewpoint on Daniel Jones, but the Giants QB will finally have a chance to prove people wrong (or right) about whether or not he can lead New York back to glory. Jones’ struggles were well documented last season, which saw him make 11 appearances and deal with injuries during the course of the year.
The Giants opted not to pick up the option on his contract and this season will mark his last chance to prove to the organization that he is their QB of the future. New Giants GM Joe Schoen and new head coach Brian Daboll have said on multiple occasions that they still believe in Jones and want him to succeed in New York.
Veteran QB Tyrod Taylor is waiting in the wings as the backup. Taylor and Schoen are familiar with one another from their days in Buffalo and that has led to the question of how long Jones’ leash is before the Giants make the switch. Rumors have also popped up about the Giants possibly being interested in Jimmy Garoppolo.
Jones will be under the microscope all season long and that will begin next week at camp.
The new regime
The Giants’ front office went through a major change with the hiring of Schoen as general manager. Brian Daboll’s installment as head coach is also a big changeup in New York. The two have worked to build the franchise back up after a truly dismal season in 2021 and now we’ll see just how much has changed for the team on the field.
The players have already gotten a sense of what Daboll is about during the spring practices and there seems to be a sense of optimism in the air for the new Giants coach. He has entered the job with much fanfare and hopes that he can help turn around one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season.
Schoen has worked diligently since he was handed the keys to the Giants kingdom to try to construct a club that is going in the right direction. He walked into a situation where he was limited in what he could do because of salary cap constraints and worked to improve the offensive line. which struggled last season.
“Could we have done better? Yeah, if we had $40 million in cap space, yeah,” Schoen told the New York Post about his offseason plan. “With what we had, I think we executed a plan. We were able to upgrade the roster with the resources we had.”
Schoen’s goal is to build a roster that is improving from top to bottom.
Can Saquon Barkley finally bounce back for Giants?
The Giants had so many high hopes for Saquon Barkley after such a successful rookie campaign, but injuries have kept him from replicating that success over the past few years. Now with a new head coach and offensive coordinator in Mike Kafka, could this be the year that the former No. 2 overall pick regains his form?
For more New York Giants coverage, head to amNY.com.
Barkley suffered an ankle sprain last season that forced him to miss four games and he never seemed to get back to where he could be after that. There was a flash of what the running back could really do during Week 4 against the New Orleans Saints when he racked up 126 yards and scored two touchdowns.
NFL.com predicted Barkley would be the Giants’ “non-QB MVP” for this upcoming season.
