Giants GM Joe Schoen setting up for an active offseason next year

The 2023 Giants are on the clock.

General manager Joe Schoen said he likes his current roster, and naturally the Giants will try to win as many games as possible in 2022.

But when asked on Thursday whether the most important thing he has done so far this year is put the team in better position to be active next offseason, Schoen said this:

“Yes. We were not really able to be active this year at all . . . I think going into next year in free agency we will definitely have a lot more flexibility than we had this year.”

The first-year GM has been blunt about the Giants’ salary cap limitations since taking the job, and that challenge remains in the runup to the Sept. 11 opener against the Titans.

Schoen said he probably will have to do some contract restructuring between now and then.

“We’ll get where we need to get, where we can get through the season, but the situation is the situation,” he said. “This is the hand we were dealt, and we're going to do the best we can with what we have.

“The waiver wire, the practice squad, whatever it may be, with what we can we're going to continue to try to compete the best we can.”

The opener merely is the next step in a long process. Schoen said if the Giants win, people will say they are better than they probably are, and if they lose it will be the opposite.

“I think it's going to take a few weeks to really figure out who we are,” he said.

Notes & Quotes: Schoen on QB Daniel Jones: “I think Daniel’s in a good place. I'm happy where he is. But again, we all know everybody's got to go perform on Sundays. That's when the evaluations will really start.” . . . K Graham Gano (concussion) said he has been cleared and is good to go for the opener.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.