New York Giants' Top Candidates for Breakout Season in 2017

The New York Giants got their first taste of a postseason berth since the 2011 season after recording 11 wins last year, which was good enough for the Wild Card round.

While they didn't come close enough to their goal of putting another Lombardi in the team's trophy case, head coach Ben McAdoo, his assistant coaches and the front office now at least have an idea as to the "personality" of this team and what it's capable of doing.

To get it to the next level, McAdoo and company are no doubt looking for certain guys, both returning and new, to hit the ground running in taking that all-important first step—winning the division—toward the ultimate glory of hoisting the Lombardi trophy.

Here's a look at five players whom the Giants will be hoping to see take a big step forward in terms of their on-field production in 2017.

OL Ereck Flowers

Jim Mone/Associated Press

Left tackle Ereck Flowers has completed two rocky seasons as a pro. Despite that, the Giants are not giving up on the No. 9 overall pick in the 2015 draft—team co-owner John Mara said as much at last month's league meetings. 

"I know that seems to be the popular sentiment around, but this is a young kid who's been in our weight room every day in the offseason," Mara said, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. 

"There's a spot for him on our team. Hopefully it will continue to be at left tackle, but I'm not giving up on him yet, and I don't think anyone on our staff is."

That Flowers has been hard at work in the team's weight room ahead of the official start of the offseason strength and conditioning program on April 18 is significant.   

Renowned offensive line scouting consultant Duke Manyweather explained during an appearance on a recent Big Blue Chat podcast that what Flowers might be doing during his Giants-based workouts is working on strengthening his lower body so that he can get better bend to get his hands into position on his blocks.

It remains to be seen if the workouts will yield fruit, but with the team needing to decide whether to pick up the option year on Flowers' rookie contract after this season, it's at least good to see him making the effort to improve his technique.

RB Paul Perkins

Michael Perez/Associated Press

Last year, Giants' fifth-round pick Paul Perkins, a running back out of UCLA, was forced to miss most of the post-draft OTAs due to a rule requiring rookies to complete their college terms before reporting for full-time duty with their new clubs.

Once Perkins finished his classes, he hit the playbook hard, doing everything he could to get up to speed in all facets of the game.

By the end of the season, Perkins had passed former starter and now ex-Giant Rashad Jennings on the depth chart.

After giving the Giants a sample of what he's capable of doing, the team had to have liked what they saw: A guy who not only improved every week, but who, per Pro Football Focus, also allowed just two quarterback hurries in 325 snaps.

More importantly, Perkins' 4.1 yards per carry was the highest average of those running backs with at least 100 carries (the other being Jennings).

Perkins also had the higher yards-per-contact average (2.2) to Jennings' 2.0, and forced 10 missed tackles to Jennings' 11.

Perkins' limited production no doubt gives the team hope that the league's 29th ranked rushing offense last year will be much improved in 2017.

Perkins is going to be counted on in a big way to make it happen; with a full offseason under his belt, he should be that much more improved in 2017.

LB B.J. Goodson

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Outside of safety Darian Thompson (third round), who was injured, fourth-round draft pick B.J. Goodson, a middle linebacker, was the only one of the rookies to not get much regular-season work outside of special teams.

Per Pro Football Focus, Goodson played 13 defensive snaps, seven in run support and six in coverage. The fact that the Giants had Kelvin Sheppard and Keenan Robinson ahead of the rookie on the depth chart was largely responsible for Goodson's limited defensive snaps.

This year, Goodson, who was drafted to be the team's middle linebacker, has a chance to step up and deliver, just as he did in college when he had to wait his turn to become a starter.

Giants head coach Ben McAdoo told reporters at the league meetings last month that Goodson is going to compete with Robinson for the starting middle linebacker role in the base defense.

It's a golden opportunity for the second-year player out of Clemson, who didn't look out of place on special teams, to take what he's learned in his one year in the Giants system as a rookie and build on it.

OL D.J. Fluker

Uncredited/Associated Press

To describe offensive lineman D. J. Fluker's pro career as disappointing so far would probably be a fair assessment.

The Chargers' No. 1 draft pick in 2013 (11th overall) struggled regardless of where he played. Manyweather opined that Fluker might have been playing at too heavy of a weight during his tenure with the Chargers, a span in which he has allowed 20 sacks, 21 hits and 126 hurries in his career, per PFF.

Fluker now has an opportunity to hit the reset button with the Giants. He'll compete for a starting job on the right side of the offensive line—ESPN's Jordan Raanan reported that Fluker was being penciled in at guard, but pictures posted to Fluker's Instagram account have shown him also working on his footwork at tackle.

It would not be surprising if the Giants have asked the 6'5" Fluker to slim down from his listed 339-pound weight to get even quicker and lighter on his feet. Regardless, Fluker, who signed a one-year contract with the Giants, has a golden opportunity to finally prove to his detractors that he is indeed first-round material.

S Darian Thompson

Brad Penner/Associated Press

Despite being a rookie, safety Darian Thompson, the team’s third-round draft pick last year, quickly won the starting free safety job before the competition even had a chance to get going.  

Unfortunately, a chronic foot injury wiped out Thompson’s rookie year, which this year leaves him to start from scratch. 

The good news is that Thompson is a football-smart player who, just because he couldn’t contribute on the field, kept up with how the defense unfolded and how opponents challenged them. 

This year, a presumably fully healthy Thompson is going to get a chance to do it all over again once he’s cleared to take the field.

If he can pick up where he left off and show no side effects from having missed most of his rookie season, the Giants defensive secondary is going to be that much more of a nightmare for opposing teams to face.

Unless otherwise noted, all advanced analytics are from Pro Football Focus. 

Patricia Traina covers the New York Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.