Giants' new regime building a foundation with limited supplies
Brian Daboll, Giants head coach, reacts after quarterback Daniel Jones threw to wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson (not in picture) for a touchdown during training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 30. Credit: James Escher
At one point early in training camp Brian Daboll mentioned that many of the Bills teams he coached in the previous four seasons had routinely gotten off to “historically fast starts.” In the first four games of the last three of those campaigns the Bills were a combined 10-2. Each of those times getting out of the blocks smoothly and efficiently propelled them to the playoffs.
Daboll was asked how the Bills had been able to accomplish that early fall feat.
“Well,” he said, “you have good players that go out there and execute well under pressure.”
Imagine that.
For Giants fans over much of the past decade, all they have been able to do is imagine it. A roster that has routinely been stocked with overpriced and underachieving free agents, disappointing draft picks, players in starting roles who would have been (and in many cases were) cut or on the practice squad of other organizations, and seen too many of its actually productive players sidelined with injuries, has, predictably, failed.
No team in the league has a worse record than the Giants over the last five seasons, (although the Jets have the same abysmal 22-59 mark over that stretch) mostly because no team in the league has had worse players. They've also been mismanaged into misery.
But it seems as if that is about to change.
Daboll and new general manager Joe Schoen, both of whom helped turn the Bills around, are looking to do the same with the Giants. It’s a process that began in the offseason by casting off a number of veterans, whittling down the salary cap as best they could with both personnel and some salaries cuts, and overhauling the scouting department.
For a franchise that has been set in its ways for several generations, it’s been a seismic jolt.
Like most such events, there are aftershocks.
This probably isn’t the team that will fulfill the vision Daboll and Schoen pitched to ownership during their interviews this past winter. There are still too many holes, too many questions. It’s just the first step toward building a sustainable contender.
It’s why Sunday doesn’t only mark the beginning of the 2022 regular season, it also marks the start of tryouts for the 2023 team. Everything and everyone is being evaluated to see how things fit with the long-term plans Schoen and Daboll, tied together with a vow of patience from ownership, are trying to implement.
John Mara and Steve Tisch have churned through three, two-year head coaching stints since 2016, and have fired (or nudged into retirement) more general managers in the last five years than their fathers did when they ran the organization together for 15. They have tried rebuild on top of rebuild on top of rebuild in recent times, and finally realized that for anything to stand, the ground needed clearing for the placement of a solid foundation.
Razing the roster is a big part of that.
There appear to be some young cornerstone pieces in place. Certainly the new regime sees the players it drafted in the spring, especially first-rounders Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal, as such. A few others from previous drafts are likely to stick around with them, too: Andrew Thomas, Xavier McKinney and Azeez Ojulari. Those Dave Gettleman-led draft classes were mostly flops, but there were some gems occasionally mixed in.
The perceived pillars of this 2022 team, though, may not be around when the organization actually starts winning ... even if such desired results come quickly. That list includes quarterback Daniel Jones, running back Saquon Barkley and wide receiver Sterling Shepard, all in the last year of their contracts. Defensive lineman Leonard Williams and wide receiver Kenny Golladay have burdensome deals that will only become more onerous and less palatable in ensuing seasons.
At most one or two of those veterans will make it through this overhaul as Giants. There is a good chance none of them will. Even if Jones and Barkley, the team’s first picks in the 2018 and 2019 drafts, can mount exceptional seasons this year, it is almost impossible from a financial perspective to bring both back in 2023.
“A lot of the plan has been executed to where we are now and it will see us through the next off-season as well,” Schoen said.
This season will probably be better than those of the recent past, which of course isn’t a very high bar to clear. There could be moments when we start to see the outline of future victories take shape, when there are flickers of promise emanating from the darkness. Supposedly star players may even play up to their reputations, unknowns may provide pleasant surprises, and, who knows, there might be some games in December and January that decide if this squad touches the postseason.
Enjoy all of that, Giants fans.
Just know this 2022 season is, above all else, about building toward 2023, 2024 and 2025, about learning what works and what doesn’t, about figuring out who stays and who goes.
“It’s really just about progress,” Schoen said of this coming season when he was hired back in January. “We just want to see progress and see that we’re building to something into the future.”
If they can do that, maybe one day the Giants won’t have to imagine having those good players who execute and perform under pressure who Daboll cited from his time in Buffalo.
Maybe they’ll actually be here.
Maybe a few of them already are.
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.
