NY Giants Twitter Mailbag: Mandatory Minicamp Preview Edition

The New York Giants will wrap up their offseason work with a three-day mandatory minicamp that the media will be able to view in its entirety.

As has been the case with the OTAs, there will be no contact, and the players will not be in full pads.

One of the goals for the coaches, besides getting the players out of there healthy, is to get as many of the installs done on offense, defense and special teams as they can.

More importantly, head coach Tom Coughlin told reporters that the coaching staff hopes to come away with a better idea as to what each player is willing to give as far as work and performance.

“You start to look at a little bit more scope, but really on a daily basis, practice to practice, what they should be doing right now is deciding how do they want to finish the spring and what are their goals and what impression do they want to have?” he said.

I’ll be at the minicamp all three days, bringing you updates via Twitter. In the meantime, here are some outstanding questions I received on Twitter for this mailbag. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question, and enjoy.

Thanks for the question, Ceri. Before I answer, I need to confess that I can’t seem to get general manager Jerry Reese’s words spoken at the end of last season out of my head:

"We try to give guys a chance to fail. If you give them a chance to fail and they fail, that’s fine, we made a mistake. But you have to give guys a chance to fail first before you push them out the door."

These words are relevant to your question, especially where Adrien Robinson is concerned.

If we look at Adrien Robinson, the first year, he came into the spring OTAs late because his college classes ran into late May. Then, he had some injury issues the next year. Last year, he finally started to make progress and showed some flashes as an in-line blocker.

Robinson, as you know, is a draft pick, a fourth-round pick in 2012. I don’t know if the organization feels that Robinson has failed.

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However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they look at the tape last year, see the potential he showed that led them to select him and are hoping that Robinson can build on that in year two of the McAdoo offense.

So, to answer your question, unless something out of the ordinary happens, I don’t see Robinson being replaced.

I do, however, think Daniel Fells is far from being secure in terms of having a roster spot. If one from the trio of Will Tye, Matt LaCosse and Jerome Cunningham really has a solid summer, Fells could be the first from the returning tight ends to be sent packing. 

The second-best player from that young trio of Cunningham, LaCosse and Tye will more than likely land on the practice squad.

Thanks for the question, Paul (and to everyone else who asked it). General manager Jerry Reese and the personnel department claim that they always explore every option out there.

While I completely agree that kicking the tires on Mathis would be a smart move—and while if I were the general manager, I would do so and not think twice about it—let’s look at the situation more closely.

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First, Mathis apparently wants to be paid handsomely, as is his right. The Giants, meanwhile, aren’t married in terms of big money to any players beyond this year (meaning that after this year, a lot of guys with high base salaries in 2016 no longer have guaranteed money owed to them, plus they can be cut at a cap savings if the Giants wish).

At this point, I don’t think the Giants are going to sink big money into a 33-year-old offensive lineman ahead of paying their franchise quarterback, their top defensive end and/or one of their top cornerbacks. I really don’t.

I also don’t think Mathis will be willing to come here on a veteran minimum.

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Then there is another factor, and that is Justin Pugh. Pugh is this generation’s David Diehl—a guy who can be plugged in anywhere on the offensive line except center. With that said, Pugh has been focused strictly on left guard this spring, the position that Mathis plays.

The Giants historically do not like to implement wholesale changes on a unit once they have an initial setup.

That doesn’t mean they won’t make changes, but I think they would prefer to make as few changes as possible on the offensive line in one swoop.

If they bring in Mathis, then Pugh moves back to right tackle, which means you have two changes on the offensive line. Now, Ereck Flowers, your rookie left tackle, has to get used to a new guy next to him who doesn’t have the same grasp on the playbook as Pugh.

That’s a bit of a long-winded answer, but to summarize, my guess is that the Giants will inquire about Mathis but will not end up as a winner in the bidding for his services.

Excellent question, Cody! This is actually a question I don’t see get asked enough, given how poor the Giants were against the run last year.

I think the starting defensive tackles are going to be Johnathan Hankins as the penetrator and Kenrick Ellis as the plugger.

I could also see Jay Bromley rotating in there at both defensive tackle spots—Bromley has gotten much bigger up top thanks to his weight-room work and, to me, still looks quick off the snap.

I think Cullen Jenkins will stick around as well. I am not, however, so sure that Markus Kuhn will have a spot on this roster if everyone stays healthy.

Kuhn has received snaps with the starters in the OTAs, but in watching the film from past seasons, he all too often absorbed blocks rather than administering the punishment.

The good news is that Kuhn is a gym enthusiast who always looks to improve his strength, so it’s possible he’ll show more improvement once the pads go on, but that remains to be seen. 

Thanks for the question, Frank. As you probably know, the current CBA implemented a rookie scale as far as contract amounts. Where things get sticky sometimes is with guaranteed money and offset language, which I believe is why Landon Collins and Ereck Flowers are still unsigned.

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Flowers, by the way, does not have an agent, according to NFLPA records accessible to the media. He is relying on his father and on a family retained attorney for the time being.

While rookie contracts are straightforward, it is actually surprising that Flowers doesn’t have a certified NFLPA contract adviser to help with offset language and with guaranteed money, etc.

I think Collins and Flowers will be signed before training camp begins. They will need to be if they want to be on the field, as I believe the injury waiver they both have at this moment expires at the end of the OTA period. 

Thanks for the question, Mike. Corey Washington seems to have the right attitude regarding what he needs to do to earn more playing time in 2015, and I think if he continues to do the little things and doesn’t cut corners, he’ll get that playing time.

Now, with that said, if you’re expecting Washington to receive more than five pass targets per game, I’m not sure if that is going to happen this year.

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Eli Manning’s receiving options include receivers Odell Beckham Jr., Victor Cruz (if healthy) and Rueben Randle, tight end Larry Donnell and running back Shane Vereen.

Using Manning’s stats from last season, he attempted 601 passes, an average of 37.5 per game. If he were to target five different players, each would receive about 7.51 pass opportunities per game.

Now, while in theory, it’s not a bad idea to spread the ball around, what do you do if, say, Randle is drawing single coverage and has the hot hand? Do you take away from him just to get the ball to Washington and the others?

My point is that I don’t think Washington is going to get as many passes thrown his way as some would like to see this season.

Note: These next questions came to me in three tweets from the same person, but they're about one position, the offensive line.  

This question is a tough one to answer, Anil, because we haven’t seen this unit go against live competition with pads on.

With that said, I think the most noticeable change we’ll see is that the run blocking should be much better.

The Giants completely revamped the interior of the offensive line, which last year was a mess between players missing and players being out of position and was a major culprit behind the offense’s inability to run the ball. 

I’ll start with the obvious weakness, which is the lack of experience—and I’m not just talking about Ereck Flowers, the rookie at left tackle.

Although you have some returning faces such as Weston Richburg, Justin Pugh and Geoff Schwartz from last year, you also have five new starters at each offensive line spot this year, something that is rare in the NFL.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

So while the receivers, tight ends and running backs all have some continuity, this offensive line is starting from scratch this year, thanks to the Will Beatty injury.

As far as strengths, I think this line has much more athleticism than last year’s version. I think Pugh is going to be asked to pull a lot from his left guard spot (assuming he stays there), and that could be a secret weapon in the running game.

You also have Schwartz and Richburg both returning “home” to their natural position of right guard and center, respectively, so I think that’s going to help expedite the jelling of that line because both men don’t have to learn a new position, as was the case last year.

Above all else, this unit needs to stay healthy. I can’t stress that enough. It needs to stay healthy.

If it can stay healthy, it will have time to jell.

You’d like to think that the coaching staff will figure out ways to comb over any weaknesses they might have on the line if they can decide on the five best guys, but in order for that to happen, trust and camaraderie need to take root.

That cannot happen unless you have the same people working together on every snap—I don’t care who you put on the field.

If the Giants can accomplish that, they can be a solid unit.

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and information were obtained firsthand. Follow me on Twitter.