New York Giants 2015 Preview: Complete Guide for Preseason, Season
This Sunday marks a key milestone on the NFL calendar.
Wait for it: This Sunday is going to be the last one on the 2015 calendar without NFL football.
One more week and the New York Giants will begin mixing it up with players sporting other jerseys. New York, of course, will spend a couple of days of their training camp working with the Bengals in Cincinnati ahead of their first preseason game a week from this Friday.
It’s going to be great to see just how far this team has actually come after spending hours in the spring and summer trying to put together a competitive football program.
So as we count down these last few remaining days before things start rocking and rolling, let’s take a look at everything you need to know about the Giants for the upcoming preseason and regular season.
Three Things to Look for This Year
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How Will They Respond to the Pressure?
General manager Jerry Reese told reporters at his annual state of the team press conference that this year carries no more pressure than usual as far as winning.
“It’s every year—that happens every year,” he said. “Regardless, in the National Football League, every year is a win-or-else season in the National Football League; that never changes either.”
Yes, but what Reese isn’t factoring into the equation is that it’s not every year that a team with a head coach who turns 69 later this month is coming off a three-year stretch in which it hasn’t been in the playoffs and its win-loss record has regressed over that period.
The Giants need to win this year, otherwise expect the front office to blow up the football operations from the head coach right on down to the water boy.
Typically, under head coach Tom Coughlin's leadership, the Giants have responded with their backs against the wall. Will they do so again this year?
Stay tuned.
Offense
It’s year two of the modified West Coast offense, a year that saw franchise quarterback Eli Manning post new career highs in completion percentage and passing yards—all this without much of a running game and behind an offensive line that at times resembled Swiss cheese.
This year the front office addressed the offensive line and added talent to the running backs rotation (more on that in an upcoming slide) in hopes of having a more complete offense.
With the defense brand new and still a work-in-progress, there are some who believe that the offense is going to have to carry this team, at least in the beginning, while the defense gets its sea legs underneath it.
Can the Giants do it? The talent is there at the skill positions, but right now, that offensive line is one significant injury away from spoiling the party.
Defense
Steve Spagnuolo, the beloved architect of the 2007 and 2008 defenses, is back for a second tour with the team. Unfortunately, guys like Justin Tuck, Michael Strahan and Antonio Pierce didn’t follow him through the door.
While those three were unique talents, Spagnuolo does have a solid collection of options on which to build a long-term foundation.
Those include defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, corners Prince Amukamara and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and linebackers J.T. Thomas and Devon Kennard.
There are question marks, though. Lots of question marks, to be frank.
For instance, the team is hoping that Jon Beason, the heart and soul of that defense, will finally get the injury-free year everyone wants him to have.
The Giants are hoping that their young and inexperienced safeties don’t become liabilities when it comes to defending against the big pass play.
They are also hoping that at some point they can get defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul signed and back onto the field after his tragic July 4 accident that cost him his right index finger.
That’s a lot of hope and expectations, which is why Spagnuolo now famously cautioned reporters during his first official press conference back in May that he isn’t a magician and that it wasn’t simply a matter of flipping a switch to pick up where things left off in 2008.
The defense is going to take time to come together, just as it did in 2007. If Spagnuolo can get half of the production form the 2015 group that he got out of the 2007 crew, this team will already be ahead in the race.
The Top Key New Faces
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RB Shane Vereen
Last year the Giants were dealt a blow when running back David Wilson, their first-round pick in 2012, was forced to retire because of a neck issue that made it too dangerous for him to risk further contact.
Wilson was to have provided the Giants running game with that threat out of the backfield, so when he couldn’t make it out of camp, the Giants' running game became too one-dimensional.
Enter Shane Vereen, formerly with the New England Patriots. Vereen can not only carry the rock between the tackles, but he’s also the first true receiving threat this team has had since Ahmad Bradshaw. Vereen’s quickness and ability to hit the tiniest of creases could go a long way toward helping an offensive line that appears to still be a long way from being settled.
LB J.T. Thomas
One of the first things to come out of new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s mouth after he introduced himself to his charges was a number: 1,507.
What’s the significance of that number? Middle linebacker Jon Beason, in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio last month, explains (h/t sportsrant.com):
"That’s the amount of yards that we gave up after contact. So not so much just scheme, but getting guys down at the first opportunity, we can go from 29 (the Giants’ 2014 rank in total yards allowed) right into the early teens, close to a top-10 defense, just based on getting guys on the ground. So 1,507, we want to eliminate that number, and that’s something that we’ve worked on really hard throughout the offseason.
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As has been noted before, not all tackles, especially those by the linebackers, are created equal. Last year, Jacquian Williams, the starting weak-side linebacker, finished fourth on the team in total tackles, with 74, yet he was one of several guilty parties whose tackles came more than five yards down the field.
That’s probably why the Giants’ front office decided to upgrade the position, replacing Williams with former Jacksonville linebacker J.T. Thomas, the new projected starter on that weak side and a man who can also slide over to the middle in a pinch.
Thus far, Thomas has shown better awareness in coverage. He also has appeared to trust what he’s seeing, something Williams didn’t always do. He might not end up in the team's top five in tackles, and he doesn't have to, but if he can make each one of this tackles count for minimal yardage, that would go a long way toward contributing to the reduction of that 1,507 number.
DT Kenrick Ellis
The Giants really haven’t had a legitimate plugger for their defensive line since Shaun Rogers, which was part of the reason for their struggles against the run and in short-yardage situations.
In former New York Jet Kenrick Ellis, they now have that big-bodied space-eater who should be able to draw multiple blockers, thus leaving the rest of his teammates to beat solo blocking, which they should be able to do with speed.
The goal? To rush the passer and force mistakes that might lead to turnovers is certainly one goal, but even more importantly to the Giants, who last year finished 30th in run defense, they want to stop the run as they did during the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
Doing so will then allow Spagnuolo to unleash his various pressure packages. One of which figures to include outside linebacker Devon Kennard, who, last year finished fourth on the team in sacks, is to stop the run on first down.
DE George Selvie
With Jason Pierre-Paul’s status anyone’s guess, former Dallas Cowboy George Selvie, a college teammate of Pierre-Paul’s, is going to get an opportunity to step up into those roles as a run-stopper and pass-rusher.
In two seasons for the Cowboys, Selvie recorded 10.0 sacks; per data collected from Pro Football Focus, he has harassed opposing quarterbacks 63 times over the last two seasons (sacks, hurries and pressures), or approximately 8 percent of his pass-rushing snaps over that period.
Key Rookies
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General manager Jerry Reese always expresses hope each year for the team’s first three draft picks to step up and contribute sooner than later. Here is a look at this year’s top three.
OT Ereck Flowers
The Giants first-round draft was supposed to launch his NFL career at right tackle.
Because of the pectoral muscle injury veteran Will Beatty suffered, Ereck Flowers, a college left tackle whom NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein said has some very noticeable flaws in his pass protection, is being thrust into that critical left tackle spot.
In run blocking, however, Flowers has come as advertised: a big man who swallows his opponents and drives them out of the way.
His footwork in pass protection remains inconsistent and, at times sloppy, as he sometimes establishes too wide of a base, resulting in him sometimes being easily pushed back.
S Landon Collins
The Giants traded up in the second round to grab Landon Collins, regarded as the draft's "best" safety by numerous draft publications and analysts, including NFL.com's Mike Mayock.
Collins, who was groomed in Nick Saban’s pro-style defense, was pigeonholed as a box safety. However, the rookie, who aspires to carry on the tradition of his longtime idol, the late Sean Taylor, has insisted that he can be just as effective in coverage as he can down in the box.
So far that hasn’t been as evident. Collins has at times fought the ball when it has come his way and has taken a few bad angles in coverage. Against the run, however, he has looked solid, and he does seem to possess a solid football IQ.
He’ll still likely be one of the two starting safeties, regardless of what anyone says, but certainly the four preseason games are going to provide a lot of clarity regarding whether he is ready to take on both coverage and run-support duties in this defense.
DE Owa Odighizuwa
Third-round pick Owa Odighizuwa is a prototypical Giants defensive end as far as size is concerned. Listed at 6’3”, 270 pounds, Odighizuwa’s greatest attribute is his ability to play the run.
The praise for Odighizuwa as a pass-rusher isn’t quite as high, but the good news is that when given opportunities to rush the passer, he has shown himself to have an explosive first step off the snap, very similar to former Giants pass-rushing specialist Osi Umenyiora’s.
Perhaps the downgrading of Odighizuwa’s pass-rushing abilities might have tied into concerns about the two hip surgeries he had.
The question surrounding Odighizuwa is, can he hold up against the run? Again, he appears to have the size to do so, but until the pads go on and he starts showing he can do it on a regular basis, the jury is still out as to whether he is anywhere close to being the complete defensive end the Giants seek.
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Biggest Preseason Questions Still to Be Answered
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Offensive Line
General manager Jerry Reese didn’t hesitate with his response when I asked him during his annual training camp press briefing if he thought the team had enough talent on the offensive line.
“Yeah, we’re going to get Will Beatty back at some point—hopefully in October; I’m not sure what exactly the timeline is,” he said.
“We drafted Ereck Flowers, obviously. He’s working hard out there at left tackle. We got a couple young veterans that we have drafted lately and a couple older guys that we have in our offensive line. There’s some guys behind them, as well, competing for some positions. I think we’ll have enough to get us through and play well up front.”
The problem with Reese’s attempt to assuage any concerns about the offensive line is two-fold. First, Beatty shouldn’t even be mentioned right now if he is not going to be ready for at least the first six weeks of the season, the required time for him to sit out if, as expected, he is placed on the inactive PUP list.
Beatty isn’t going to help the Giants now, and right now is when the problem exists.
When Flowers had to miss practice with a hip flexor on Monday, the coaches mixed and matched different combinations of that offensive line, a sure sign that right now there is no plan B at left tackle in the event of another emergency.
The fact remains that as of right now, this team is one more injury away on that offensive line from the whole unit becoming a mess. So unless someone steps up, as Reese hopes will be the case, this offensive line is probably the most precarious of all the units on the team.
Safety
The Giants have loads of untapped potential at this position. What they don’t have, however, is experience, which is a concern.
Whereas many people believed that second-round pick Landon Collins might have locked up a starting job, safeties coach David Merritt threw some cold water on that notion.
“Even though a lot of people want to put it on Landon Collins, right now, there is no clarity,” Merritt said. “I still recall the days of Kenny Phillips, when he was a first-round draft pick. Kenny Phillips had to come in here and had to fight and try to get on the field.
“As we all that were here understand, you had Michael Johnson and James Butler, a free agent and a seventh-round pick, that started that entire season.”
Merritt is hoping that the preseason games provide clarity regarding this seemingly critical cog in the defense’s wheel.
“When you pull your eyes back and you look at it from a depth perspective, we have rookies on the field. I mean, the one guy that we have that is a veteran is Jeromy Miles, and Jeromy just came to us from Baltimore. As far as clarity and who’s going to be the starters right now—right now, it’s still wide-open.”
The X-Factor
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Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz
The thought of a healthy Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz on the field together is enough to make any Giants fan salivate over the possibilities.
The question is can they both stay on the field at the same time? Cruz, remember, is still working his way back into game shape after several months of rehab related to a torn patellar ligament.
Beckham, meanwhile, has been able to get on the practice field this summer, but the return of some hamstring issues during the spring have people wondering if he is always going to have to battle that issue in his career.
The two teammates probably won’t see much, if any, preseason action and neither should they. It’s better to let people dream about what might still be to come than it is to risk potentially creating a nightmare or not having one or both in the lineup.
Key 2015 Regular-Season Matchups
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Week 1: at Dallas, Week 7: vs. Dallas
All division games are important, but the series against the Cowboys and Eagles, the latter of which will be discussed in a moment, are especially critical for the Giants this year.
Since 2012, the first year of the Giants’ current playoff drought, they have lost five out of their last six regular-season games against the Cowboys, who by the way swept the season series in 2013 and 2014.
This year, the Cowboys are the reigning division champions. This is a team with a powerfully built offensive line that should pose a good test for the Giants’ new defense.
Whether Giants fans like it or not, the Cowboys are currently the “Beast of the East.” If New York can at least split this series with the defending division champs, that should put the Giants in a good position later in the year when tiebreakers become more relevant.
Week 6: at Philadelphia, Week 17: vs. Philadelphia
As they did last year, the Giants will get their first crack at the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 6 in another prime-time matchup. The Eagles are 3-1 in regular-season games against the Giants in the Chip Kelly era and have outscored the Giants 104-62 in those games.
In a perfect world, the Giants dish out a little revenge to the Eagles, whose pre-game theatrics sometimes border on the sophomoric side of the fence. The Eagles, remember, crushed the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field last year, 27-0, before going on a few weeks later to sweep the season series 34-26.
If the Giants are to have any chance of winning the division, they need to at least split this series, if not sweep it.
Week 10: New England
This year, the NFC East will see teams from the AFC East, a division against which the Giants are 22-17.
In the regular season, the Giants had a four-game losing streak to the New England Patriots dating back to December 21, 1996.
They finally snapped that streak with a 24-20 win on the Patriots' home turf on November 6, 2011, a game that was a prelude to Super Bowl XLVI, in which the Giants yet again thumped the Patriots en route to a World Championship.
Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.
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