The New York Football Giants kicked off a new era of football Thursday night in impressive fashion.
While a 23-21 preseason victory over the New England Patriots is nothing to celebrate about with the regular season just a month away, the first actual football game under Brian Daboll turned out to be a success.
As with any preseason game, there was a lot to take away from Thursday’s contest. Some were good, others weren’t. But as the Giants continue to look to grow under a new head coach, and front office leadership, Thursday’s game was an important first step in the new rebuild.
Giants OL is a work in Progress
There was good news, but also bad when talking about the Giant’s offensive line Thursday night. Both Andrew Thomas and Evan Neal looked solid in their first action together. The two tackles made a very comfortable pocket for their quarterback and looked the part of first-round linemen. Neal ended up giving up a sack late in the first quarter however, he looked solid as a whole. The Giants haven’t had as good a pair of tackles in over a decade so this was an encouraging sight to see.
While the tackles showed out, the interior offensive line remains a huge problem. Shane Lemieux left the game after the first series with a toe injury, and Mark Glowinski was beaten multiple times for big hits on Daniel Jones.
The Giants know they have depth issues along their offensive line. This is part of the reason they are still rebuilding. However, a quarterback’s worst nightmare is interior pressure making it impossible to step up in the pocket. Daniel Jones was solid on Thursday throwing 6/10 for 69 yards. It’s hard to envision him playing a full 17-game schedule if he’s getting it like he did last night though.
Giants need better corners
We mentioned that being a part of a rebuilding team, general manager Joe Schoen had to make positional sacrifices to be cap compliant this offseason. Gone are James Bradberry and Logan Ryan, and boy did their absences show on Thursday night.
Aaron Robinson, a third-round pick from the 2021 draft was beaten multiple times for deep passes and was called for two separate penalties. Cor’Dale Flott also left the game early due to an injury as well so the Giants don’t have a lot of quality depth in the secondary, to begin with.
Adoree Jackson is easily the best corner on the roster and wasn’t targeted much in Thursday’s game. Expect to see more of that going into the season with so much uncertainty in his counterpart’s position.
A wide receiver position battle?
Let’s be very blunt: the Kenny Golladay signing has not worked out thus far in the year and a couple of months the former Lion has been here.
Golladay didn’t catch a touchdown pass last season, and while many attributed that to the poor offensive scheme ran last year, Golladay has looked as bad in practice under Brian Daboll’s tutelage.
The 6’4″ jump-ball target has had issues winning 1v1 matchups and gaining any sort of separation throughout his tenure in New York. Thursday was more of the same. On three targets Thursday, Golladay caught one pass for six yards. His drop on third down in the red zone had many analysts questioning his effort.
It looked even worse when Collin Johnson, a 6’5″ talent outplayed him when he got reps with the first and second teams. Johnson tallied seven catches for 82 yards last night and was the best receiver on the field.
It’s hard to say if Daboll will simply bench Golladay for Johnson, but through the first week of training camp and preseason work, it’s clear that the Giants may have a new big-body receiver starting this season.
Giants rush for over 175 yards
The Buffalo Bills under Brian Daboll rarely were considered a running team. In fairness, they didn’t have a player like Saquon Barkley in the backfield.
While the Giant’s pass blocking was suspect throughout the game Thursday, their run blocking was quite a positive takeaway. New York ran for 177 yards on 33 carries for an excellent 5.4 yards per carry. Antonio Williams led the charge with 61 yards rushing and a touchdown while Saquon Barkley was rather quiet, touching the football a mere five times.
It’s important to note though that the Giants haven’t been a football team that has been capable of dominating the trenches for a long time.
The offensive line did sustain some injuries, but if they can run block like they did Thursday, they could be building a new brand of Giants football that could get any fan excited.
The Quarterbacks
Daniel Jones wasn’t bad Thursday. He took what the defense gave him, threw accurate passes, and ran when he needed to. It is not his fault that the interior group gave up so many big hits, but it will be talked about throughout the preseason period due to the injury concerns that have followed him in the past.
Daniel Jones is the starting quarterback in 2022, but once again, Tyrod Taylor showed out as the backup quarterback.
Taylor was 13/21 with 129 yards passing and a touchdown. Taylor moved the offense far more methodically than Jones and even got some luck on his side throughout the contest.
There isn’t a quarterback controversy in New York, but it is a huge plus that the Giants have an extremely competent backup quarterback should Jones get hurt this season. In 2021, the Giants threw out Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm to the dismay of pretty much everyone. That won’t happen in 2022.
Things could get dicey though if the Giants start the season struggling and Taylor plays well in the small time he gets.
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