Grading the Class of '23 for Jets, Giants

In 2000, when Al Groh was coach of the Jets, he was asked, after a practice right around this time of the year, about how some of his young players were handling their new roles and rigors as professional football players. Right away, he sensed what was happening.

“Oh, I see,” he chided the reporters knowingly. “Time to break out the ‘Rookie Wall’ stories, right?”

The tradition still exists. Mostly because the actual phenomenon does as well.

“It’s a long season for them, yeah,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said of his rookies this past week. “College football’s getting close to kind of ending, the championship games are coming on, so this is usually the time you’ve got to really stay on these guys in terms of their preparation and the consistency and fighting through some things, because it’s a long season for them. Everybody goes through it.”

As the rookies on the Jets and Giants arrive at this time-honored phase of their introduction to the NFL, they do so at various places in their developments. Some were high draft picks who have barely played, others were undrafted prospects who have become key contributors. One of those undrafted players has even become a starting quarterback!

A year ago, the rookie crop was a very different situation for both teams. The Jets had a player who most people thought was going to win Offensive Rookie of the Year in Breece Hall. He got hurt, and another Jet, Garrett Wilson, wound up with the honor. Teammate Sauce Gardner took home the defensive award. The three remain as the young foundation of the team.

The Giants, meanwhile, had two first-round picks, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal, who helped them snap a decade-long drought without a playoff victory and looked to be solid checkmarks on the resume of another rookie, general manager Joe Schoen. Some of the shine has been deleted from those initial impressions, but there  certainly is time  for both of them to avoid becoming the dreaded bust.

The New York area’s Class of 2023 certainly has plenty of time and wiggle room before any final judgments are made on it, too. But as they come toward the end of their introductory seasons, and as Groh might expect, here is  an assessment of where they stand and what their first impressions have looked like as we divide them into four categories: Overachieving, Progressing, Disappointing and Invisible.

OVERACHIEVING

In an opening night game for the Jets that began with fireworks and lasers and quickly wobbled toward a sickening funeral of sorts when Aaron Rodgers tore an Achilles, it was a rookie who salvaged the win and showed everyone that they didn’t necessarily need the four-time MVP to be successful . . .  on that night, anyway. Xavier Gipson, an undrafted receiver from Stephen F. Austin, returned an overtime punt 65 yards for the game-winning touchdown. Since then Gipson’s responsibilities have evolved from purely special teams to an offensive presence, too, and his contributions there made Mecole Hardman tradeable for the team before the deadline last month.

PROGRESSING

The thing the Giants liked most about Deonte Banks when they selected him in the first round was his ability to move on from mistakes and plays in which he gets beat. He’s probably had a little too much practice in that area this season, but he’s also been thrust into a scenario in which he serves mostly as the defense’s number one cornerback going against top opposing receivers. He’s been targeted 66 times and allowed 38 receptions, according to Pro Football Focus. While he hasn’t missed a game, he hasn’t finished all of them because of injuries. It was always going to be an unfair bar for him to reach being the first-round cornerback selected the year after Gardner arrived, and Banks certainly hasn’t lived up to that ridiculous challenge. But he’s shown some ability and made enough plays for the Giants to be happy with where he is at . . .  and where he might be going.

The same goes for Giants second-rounder John Michael Schmitz, who has settled in as their starting center. He’s allowed only two sacks  and has done a decent job identifying defensive fronts and helping in run blocking. He missed a few games with a shoulder injury, but the fact that his return to action bumped Ben Bredeson from the center position back to guard tells you the Giants are excited about what he can bring them moving forward. They love his intangibles and toughness, too, which could help make him a team captain within the next few years.

Joe Tippmann falls into a similar category for the Jets. He didn’t win a starting job in camp and wasn’t on the field until Week 3, when they needed him at guard. He suffered a leg injury against the Eagles and missed the Giants game. But since he’s returned, he’s taken over as the starting center with Connor McGovern on injured reserve. It’s his natural position, and he doesn’t look like he’ll be giving that spot up anytime soon.

Despite playing in only three games with one start, Tommy DeVito has thrown more touchdown passes this season than any other quarterback on the team (and he ran for one, too). That probably says more about the state of the position and the offense as a whole than DeVito in particular, but the first undrafted rookie to start at quarterback for the Giants in a non-strike season during the Super Bowl era certainly is making the most of his opportunity. He hasn’t been great, but considering where he began the year, as a free agent and practice-squadder, he’s probably carved out a chance to at least compete for a backup job somewhere next season. That’s a win.

DISAPPOINTING

The Jets swore over and over that Will McDonald IV was not an afterthought or consolation prize for them when they couldn’t find a suitable offensive lineman with the 15th overall pick in April. He hasn’t been able to do much to back up that argument, though. Not all of it is his fault, as it would be tough for anyone to crack the defensive front rotation the Jets boast, especially with it being relatively injury-free. But in seven games (he’s been injured recently but was a healthy scratch once, too), he’s managed only  a half-sack and three tackles. His best play was a leap over the line of scrimmage to nearly block a late field goal against the Giants. The Giants claimed he was lined up illegally on that one, but there was no doubting the athleticism he showed. The good news for the Jets is they have a former first-round pick who also had something of a disappointing rookie year but has developed into a stud in his second season: Jermaine Johnson. If McDonald can follow that path, he might just be all right.

There were so many questions about Jalin Hyatt’s route-running during the predraft process that no one stopped to wonder about who might be throwing him the football. That’s been the biggest obstacle to this third-round pick’s development. Because of the inability of the line to protect quarterbacks and allow deeper plays to develop, Hyatt’s explosive speed has been targeted only 20 times, resulting in 11 catches for 214 yards and no touchdowns.

Two sixth-round draft picks also fall into this category for the Giants, although mostly because they were forced into roles for which they clearly were not ready. Tre Hawkins III, the sixth-rounder from Old Dominion, was asked to be a Week 1 starting cornerback, and it quickly became apparent that that wasn’t a match for his development level. He still plays occasionally but sparingly. Eric Gray was groomed as a punt and kickoff returner throughout the preseason despite very little history doing either, and that inexperience showed in practices and games. His muffs eventually became intolerable just about the time he landed on IR with a calf injury in late October.

INVISIBLE

It appears Izzy Abanikanda’s time in this prison is about to end. The Brooklyn-raised fifth-round pick figures to make his regular-season debut on Sunday after the Jets waived Michael Carter to open the third spot on the depth chart for him. “We know Izzy’s speed. He’s a big, strong, powerful back,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said this past week. “We’ll see what he is. We’re about to find out for sure.” Saleh also said he thought Abanikanda would give the team “fresh legs” against players who have been grinding away for 10 weeks. “It’ll be fun to get him loose a little bit,” Saleh said.

The rest of this group is littered with draft picks who haven’t yet been able to crack their way onto the field much or at all. Not even the trade of defensive lineman Leonard Williams has been enough for the Giants to play Jordon Riley despite an impressive and entertaining summer from the seventh-rounder. Gervarrius Owens, a seventh-round safety, has appeared in only one game for the Giants (it was actually a game they won against Washington), playing on special teams with no defensive snaps.

The Jets also have lots of draft picks still on ice: OL Carter Warren (fourth round) and LB Zaire Barnes (sixth) have played  a handful of special teams reps and S Jarrick Bernard-Converse (sixth) and practice squad TE Zack Kuntz (seventh) haven’t played at all. Undrafted WR Jason Brownlee made the team out of camp but has appeared in only one game.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.