Top 8 Reasons to Be Excited About the New York Giants in 2017

There's still a lot of offseason left before the curtain rises on the 2017 NFL season, but make no mistake about it: Things are buzzing in a good way at 1925 Giants Drive in East Rutherford, home of the New York Giants.

After last year's 11-5 season, which led to their first postseason berth since 2011, the front office went to work to beef up areas on the team that were lacking in the hopes of getting the team to not only win the NFC East crown, but to also push them into the playoffs. 

If you're not ready for the season, if you need a boost or two (or eight) to get you excited about what's in store for Big Blue, read on.

More Offensive Line Depth

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

While some might be still squeamish regarding the state of the Giants' offensive line, a unit that, per Football Outsiders, was ranked 24th in run blocking and second in pass blocking, the biggest difference between this year and last is that the Giants have options.  

Last season, the first in the franchise's history that they didn't draft a single offensive or defensive lineman, the coaches were left with paper-thin depth, particularly at offensive tackle.

When injuries struck—tackle Marshall Newhouse and guard Justin Pugh both missed several games due to their respective injuries—the coaches were forced to go with less experienced depth.

This year, general manager Jerry Reese might not have made a splashy free-agent signing or jumped all over a Day 1 draft prospect for the offensive line, but by adding guard/tackle D.J. Fluker and sixth-round draft pick Adam Bisnowaty, the Giants now have some options.

Most of the Defense Is Returning

Matt Ludtke/Associated Press

Last year, the Giants took a huge gamble when they spent almost $200 million to repair the league's worst overall defense from the 2015 season.

That risky investment paid off handsomely for defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who struggled to survive in that 2015 season.

Armed with a significant upgrade in talent, the Giants defense finished 10th overall in 2016.

This offseason, Reese was faced with the challenge of keeping that defense together. He re-signed defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and linebacker Keenan Robinson, but he was unable to keep hold of defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins.

Reese has since drafted defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, whom Pro Football Focus has compared to Hankins, to fill that void.

By keeping most of last year's starting defense intact, the unit has a chance to build on what it started last year.

A More Promising Tight Ends Group

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

TE Evan Engram

In 2016, the Giants had the worst tight ends groups in the NFC East.

Per Pro Football Focus, out of 13 ranked division tight ends, Larry Donnell and Will Tye finished 12th and 13th overall, respectively, while rookie Jerell Adams finished eighth.

The struggles of the 2016 Giants tight ends were painful to watch. None packed a punch in run blocking—Donnell and Tye finished 11th and 13th respectively in the division while Adams finished seventh.

Production in the passing game wasn't any better. Based on division tight ends with at least 20 pass targets, none of the Giants tight ends averaged more than 8.2 yards per reception or averaged more than 4.0 yards after the catch.

Reese took note of that, and brought in reinforcements for both areas. He signed unrestricted free agent Rhett Ellison, a blocking tight end/fullback hybrid who was the NFC North's second-best run-blocking tight end last year. 

He also drafted tight end Evan Engram in the first round, a Jordan Reed/Jermichael Finley clone who was the fastest tight end at the 2017 combine (4.42), and the second-best performer (behind O.J. Howard) in the 3-cone drill (6.92).

As a receiver, Engram led all draft-eligible tight ends who played in at least 60 percent of their team's passing downs with 926 yards. He was third in yards after the catch behind David Njoku and Gerald Everett.

If that's not enough to get excited about Engram, consider that his eight touchdowns last year were more than twice as many as what Donnell, Tye and Adams contributed together. 

Here's another reason to get excited about Engram: Last year, his quarterback had a passer rating of at least 80.6 on passes thrown to the middle of the field.

That rating went up the deeper throws of 10-19 yards (106.4) and 20-plus yards (141.4).

Let's say it together: Goodbye Cover-2!

The Addition of Brandon Marshall

Adam Hunger/Associated Press

Just what are the Giants getting in receiver Brandon Marshall, who signed a two-year contract earlier this year?

They're getting a 6'4", 222-pound receiver who, despite dealing with assorted injuries last year, still managed to record 788 yards. To put that into perspective, that yardage total would have been second among the Giants receivers last year, behind Odell Beckham Jr.'s team-leading 1,367 receiving yards.

Marshall, who recorded 1,502 receiving yards in 2015 (his eighth career 1,000-yard season), figures to not only create mismatches with his size, he can also draw away some of the double coverage Beckham usually sees. 

The Giants are also getting a receiver who has never earned a negative run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. That's significant if you consider the role of a receiver blocking downfield for both the running game and for fellow receivers looking to find daylight. 

Perhaps most importantly, they're getting a veteran who—despite some earlier questionable moments in his career—can bring some much-needed leadership to a still relatively young receiver room.

More Elusive Running Backs

Kiichiro Sato/Associated Press

For all the blame the offensive line received about the Giants' running game sinking to 29th in the league, the backs themselves weren't blameless.

Per Pro Football Focus, Rashad Jennings, the Giants' starter last year, was among those backs with a minimum of 100 carries whose elusive rating was the lowest.

Closer to home, Jennings' 15.8 elusive rating paled next to Paul Perkins' 28.2 (Perkins being the only other Giants running back to have at least 100 carries).

This year, the team decided to move on from Jennings, who—other than for 2015—has not made it through a full 16-game season.

Head coach Ben McAdoo has already named Perkins as the team's starting running back. He'll be joined in the rotation by Shane Vereen, who is returning from a season-ending triceps injury; and rookie Wayne Gallman, who last year posted a 72.1 elusive rating on his 232 carries from scrimmage.

One of Orleans Darkwa and Shaun Draughn will likely round out the Giants' 2017 running backs corps.

Coaching Staff Continuity

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Head coach Ben McAdoo's assistant coaching staff underwent one "minor" change in the offseason, losing assistant defensive line coach Jeff Zgonina to the San Francisco 49ers.

McAdoo replaced Zgonina with Rob Leonard, a defensive quality control coach already on staff. He also added two new key members to his staff: Bobby Blick, a defensive assistant, and Pratik Patel, a full-time performance nutrition/assistant strength and conditioning coach.

This is significant because last year, the offensive line, defensive line, quarterbacks, receivers and linebackers all had new position coaches brought in from the outside.

That might not sound like a big deal, but if one remembers that each coach beings his own way of teaching the little nuances to his assigned position group, sometimes that can take some getting used to by the players.

In the second year of the McAdoo regime, the players should be even more comfortable performing their technique as asked by their position coaches. If that happens, look for them to spend less time thinking and more time playing faster.

The Cure for the Injury Bug

Frank Victores/Associated Press

It wasn't too long ago that the Giants were among the league leaders in injuries.

Brandon Lee Gowton of Bleeding Green Nation has a chart of Adjusted Games Lost that shows the Giants having finished 32nd in the league in 2013 and 2014.

Thing didn't get much better in 2015 for the Giants either. Per Football Outsiders, they again finished 32nd in Adjusted Games Lost.

New York's luck finally changed with the reorganization of its strength and conditioning program, now led by Aaron Wellman, and some significant tweaks made to the weekly in-season schedule that allows the players more time to recover after games and practices.

Those changes helped the Giants jump from being the least healthy team in the NFL to one of the healthiest. 

Per Football Outsiders, 33 of the 36 players who appeared on the Giants injury report as the "new probable" played, the eighth-best percentage in the league.

(The "probable" designation on the final injury report was dropped in 2016, so any players who were on the injury report during the week but didn't show up on the final injury report fall under the "new probable" category).

Of those 44 Giants listed as "questionable" on the final weekly injury report, 30 played in the game, the 12th-best mark in the league.

While there is some degree of luck when it comes to injuries, McAdoo is leaving little to chance.

He has said on numerous occasions that they're going to further tweak their program this year to ensure proper attention is paid to rest and recovery and to nutrition in hopes they can permanently keep the injury bug away.

Last Year's 11-5 Record

Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Raise your hand if you thought the Giants would finish 2016 with an 11-5 won-loss record.

It's OK; I didn't think so either.

Yet the Giants, despite never once scoring 30 points during the regular season, and having struggled to score 20 points in their last six regular-season games, somehow managed to notch their best won-loss record since 2008 (12-4).

A bigger, more important by-product of the winning record was the postseason berth, even though it was short-lived.

Coming into 2016, more than half of the Giants' 53-man roster did not have prior postseason experience. Further, only eight players were part of teams (either with the Giants or another club) that went all the way to the Super Bowl. 

Now that they've had a taste of what it's like, don't be surprised if they up the ante to make sure they have a place in the buffet line this year and for years to come. 

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.