By Jeff Knapp
NEW YORK- The 2021 season is here, and the New York Giants start things off this preseason with three games against the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, and New England Patriots. This Monday, the Giants will take the field with a returning core unit on both sides of the ball. We’ll see Daniels Jones, Saquon Barkley, Darius Slayton, Sterling Shepard, and Evan Engram on the offense. On defense, we are seeing the return of Blake Martinez, who was in the top 10 again last year for tackles, Leonard Williams, who signed a three-year contract with the Giants after having the franchise tag put on him, and Jabrill Peppers alongside Logan Ryan on defens
The Giants said goodbye to Kevin Zeitler, Wayne Gallman, Dion Lewis, Golden Tate, David Mayo, and Dalvin Tomlinson during the offseason. Not having Dalvin upfront may hurt the Giants. He was a force in the middle and was highly reliable. He started and played in every game since his 2017 rookie year and played in at least 50% or more of the defensive snaps.
Although we lost a few good men, we also added some great men. On defense, the Giants signed 26-year-old CB Adoree’ Jackson away from Tennessee for three years; from Minnesota, they signed DE Ifeadi Odenigbo, who might help fill the void left by Dalvin Tomlinson.
The big splash this past offseason was the addition of highly coveted WR Kenny Golladay for the likes of 4 years. Golladay will make their wide receiver core much more dangerous. The addition of speedy John Ross, who should open up the field alongside Darius Slayton. We can’t forget the addition of TE Kyle Rudolph, who should be a tremendous asset to help Evan Engram grow as a TE.
During the 2021 draft, the Giants selected multi-tool player Kadarius Toney, WR out of Florida, with their first-round pick. They then selected LB Azeez Ojulari out of Georgia in the second round.
One of the things that concerned me the most going into preseason was LB Todd Davis’s retirements and O-linemen Joe Looney and Zach Fulton. I hope this isn’t an omen of things to come. Heading into week one of the preseason and the next few weeks, we will need to keep an eye on the injuries that occurred to John Ross, Kenny Golladay, Shane Lemieux, and how Saquon Barkley fares from his 2020 injury.
We will not see much of the starters during preseason until the 3rd and final game, but Joe Judge, Patrick Graham, and Jason Garrett will be looking for many different things. For instance, schematic changes or play calling focus. The staff may look at how the team does on the 2nd & 3rd down. They may also teach them the basics of their team’s blocking assignment terminology. The coaches may also go week by week looking to set specific goals for individual players to reach.
I’m not looking at wins and losses during the preseason. I’m looking to see how they look as a unit early in the preseason.
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