“Things I Think” Day off from the New York Giants

The New York Giants are off Tuesday. I had some time to reflect on Sunday’s victory over the Carolina Panthers, and on the season to date. Makes a good time for a brain dump of “the things I think”. So let’s go.

Daniel Jones

Giants fans, the national NFL media, pretty much anyone who cares about the NFL went wild over Daniel Jones’ jump, tumbling down Sunday’s one-handed grip against the Carolina Panthers. Even his teammates:

Yeah. Toney went there.

The noise is justified. It was a spectacular piece. It’s great fun to watch, write, tweet, podcast, make memes. All that. That is not, however, what playing the quarterback position is really like.

When I think about the game, however, I fail to understand just how badly Jones played the quarterback position. The Giant offense was crippled by injuries. Still, Jones didn’t endanger a single bullet all afternoon.

Watch the poise and glow of the first pitch on the 11-play, 75-yard touchdown that gave the Giants a 12-3 lead. Watch how his athleticism, balance and touch gave Devontae Booker the opportunity to convert a third and 13 a game ahead of Jones’ spectacular capture. By the way, I felt like yelling at Booker when he started running sideways a single yard before giving the first try.

There was also a perfectly pitched tilt to Dante Pettis that allowed him to go for 27 yards.

He’s the quarterback. In the long run, the ability to do this stuff is more important than catching it a la Beckham.

Think long term when the trade expires

The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday, November 2, a week away from the publication of this article. We think in terms of “buy” or “sell” teams. The judge was asked if he wanted to see the Giants take a short-term ‘improve the team now’ approach or a long-term approach.

I think his answer says a lot about Judge, and maybe the future of the Giants.

“I always think long term. Sometimes the long term can come in a move that you can do immediately at this point, but I always think long term. I’ve said it from the start, I don’t want to take any shortcuts to anything. I was very clear on my vision for the team and where I want to build it. It’s built for long term success, ”Judge said. “I have a lot of faith in the people we have in this program right now, but at the end of the day my vision is still long term. I’m still looking – just for anyone listening, I’m still looking not only at what our depth chart is now, but what it looks like at the end of this year, at the start of next year, at what does he look like in two years?

“Whether you go through free agency, trade, draft, whatever, to me you always look down in terms of not where you are immediately, but where do you need to go. This is my take on it.

The Giants have made long-term moves with their trades lower in 2021 NFL Draft, bringing together picks that put them in a great position in what is set to be a 2022 deep draft while also allowing them to land Kadarius Toney and Azeez Ojulari.

The thing I talked about in a recent trade deadline preview was to honestly assess the list. There are a number of players who could potentially become free agents this offseason. My preference would be for the Giants to identify the players they want to move forward with and don’t want to move forward with, and see if they can get any future assets for the players they think aren’t in. of the long-term plan. I think that fits the way Judge sees it.

“It’s definitely the time of year when everyone starts making a lot of phone calls. There has been potential and opportunity for inbound, outbound trades, but it’s been around all the time the season goes on, so sometimes people fabricate too much by the trade deadline, ”Judge said. “I know a lot of teams are rushing to make the last moves. We’re obviously going to be talking about a number of phone calls that we’ll get throughout the week, but I wouldn’t say that we absolutely plan to do anything. I would say these conversations will run from now until the rest of the week. “

The judge can think long term

I don’t think the judge’s job is in danger at the moment. Not close. This must be the conclusion of what Giants co-owner John Mara told the New York Post after Sunday’s game:

When asked if his belief in Judge is still as strong as it was the day he hired her, Mara told The Post, “It is. Obviously we’ve struggled this year, but he hasn’t lost the dressing room, and I’ve seen that happen over the years. I think the players still believe in him. We just need to get our guys back to good health.

Mara cited Judge’s leadership, the way he “commanded the team” and the way he “sees the big picture”.

Mara and Steve Tisch watched Ben McAdoo implode and not last until his second season. They saw Pat Shurmur prove in two seasons that he was not an NFL head coach. When they hired Judge, they said they couldn’t start over every two years, that they had to be more patient with the young head coach for the first time they had just hired.

I expect them to give the judge that time.

So, yes, the judge can take a long-term view. This is a good thing.

Jason Garrett deserves some credit

I said Monday on Valentine’s Day Views Podcast much-maligned offensive coordinator Jason Garrett deserved props for his job Sunday against the Panthers. Facing good defense and fielding a cast or largely of second and third team players surrounding Daniel Jones, Garrett was able to create and execute a plan that allowed the Giants to operate effectively.

The Giants used RPOs, game passes, moved the pocket right and left, used Jones creatively in the run and pass game, sent Devontae Booker into space on a few runs and had used tight end Kyle Rudolph in the red zone.

“I thought Jason and his team had done a really good job at the start of the week to identify how we want to play this game, what is this team doing well, how do we move forward and play with our strengths and not let them use their strengths to exhibit something that is ours, ”said the judge. “We did some things that we knew didn’t show up in a lot of the games that we had. That was our goal throughout the planning of the game. “

Giants fans who want Garrett to leave don’t want to hear it, but the offensive coordinator has done a good job overall this season. The Giants still aren’t scoring enough points (19.9 per game, 25th in the NFL), but they’re 19th in yards after being 31st a season ago. Until the Giants are mostly in good health and Jones has the chance to work with Saquon Barkley, Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, Sterling Shepard and the rest of the team’s playmakers for an extended period of time, you can’t expect them to light up the dashboard.

I sometimes have issues with Garrett’s play call. Still, I think complaining about gambling calls is a favorite pastime of anyone who watches NFL games. We all think we know better than the guy calling the part. A good play call is any play that works. Bad play call is play that doesn’t. In the heat of the moment, with only seconds to make a decision, sometimes guys do it right and sometimes they don’t.

This is all the preamble to this: Until he gets another head coach opportunity, I don’t think Garrett is going anywhere for a while. He has a formidable relationship with Jones, and Jones’ continued rise as an NFL quarterback remains the most important piece of the Giants puzzle. Garrett’s work, on the whole, helps.

I don’t think the Giants want to disrupt Jones’ continued development if they don’t have to. I think the only thing that changes is if the Giants ever recover on offense and still fail to produce a good product.

Crying over spilled milk

You cannot change the past. Still, how different would the Giants’ narrative be if they were right 4-3 instead of 2-5? If they had won matches against the Washington football team and Atlanta Falcons? The Giants were, in my opinion, the better team in these games. They lost because of their own failure to do simple things and because of some questionable training decisions.

That 4-3 record, incidentally, would currently put the Giants in seventh place in the playoffs. Think about it a bit. A few plays that should have been played by the Giants in those two games and the story unfolding for them right now would be very different.

It just shows how thin the margin between success and failure is in the NFL.

Notable staff changes

An NFL team cannot revise their roster on the fly during the season. He can adjust the way he uses the staff at his disposal. I thought the Giants made some subtle but welcome adjustments in the staff against Carolina.

• Edge defender Quincy Roche played 23 snaps, a season record, the first time he saw more playing time than Oshane Ximines (17 snaps). Ximines, a third-round pick in 2019, has been invisible this season. He has only three taps and hasn’t registered a sack since week 14 of his rookie year. It’s about time Roche got the chance to see if he can make more plays.
• Matt Skura played every snap at left guard against Carolina. Skura isn’t great, but overall he’s been the best left guard the Giants have fielded this season. With Matt Peart on the left tackle, I thought having the same player next to him throughout the game was a good decision.
• Elijhaa Penny played 22 snaps, a season high. He had 9 carries, the most he’s had since joining the Giants in 2018. He only gained 24 yards, but that’s not really the point. Penny converted the first downs on five of six third down attempts this season. He can get tough yards. He can protect football. He can help both racing passing games as a blocker. I always thought Penny was underutilized by the Giants. I hope the trend to bring him more into the field will continue.