Giants Country

New York Giants Mailbag: A Campin' We Will Go!

Let's check in with the readers to see what's on their minds this week.

Patricia Traina

New York Giants Mailbag
New York Giants Mailbag / Patricia Traina | New York Giants on SI
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New York Giants training camp is finally set to kick off this week. The rookies have already reported and the rest of the team is due in on Tuesday, with the first practice set for Wednesday. So, let's check in with the readers to see what's on their minds as we gear up for a busy and action-filled next few weeks.

If you'd like to submit a question for the mailbag, please use this link to avoid having your question land in spam. You may also post your questions on X (formerly known as Twitter) to @Patricia_Traina, hashtag #askPTrain. Please note that letters may be edited for clarity/length.

Ed, the simple answer is our look at the Most Indispensable Giants of 2024, of which we're about to roll out No. 3 later today (you can probably guess who the remaining three players are. If you go back to last season, you saw what happened when left tackle Andrew Thomas and Dexter Lawrence weren't in the lineup, so (spoiler alert) those two are ranked in some order in our remaining top-3.

What’s the expression? “It’s always darkest right before the dawn?” I have a sneaky feeling that’s the situation with the Giant’s offensive line. 

From my view, all the pieces the Giants need are in place. What they need now is experience. At the end of last season, it was questionable if they could rely on Evan Neal at right tackle. They needed a veteran backup, so they signed Jermaine Eluemunor. 

They needed a more reliable guard. They got Jon Runyon. They have three high draft picks starting on the line. They have proven backups (Stinnie) and they have some developmental players (Ezeudu). Even if Evan Neal doesn’t work out at right tackle, I still think they are covered. 

I don’t pay too much attention to the national media’s opinions here, because they don’t follow the Giants on a day-to-day basis. So, if you ask me, Joe Schoen has done a good job with the offensive line. In general, I am cautiously optimistic about the Giants and the coming season. Keep up the great work! –  Rodney B.

Rodney, I love your enthusiasm and your optimism. Seriously, your letter made me smile. 

I can understand why there is still trepidation about the Giants' offensive line. Every year, we keep hoping it will be better and not just different, and every year, we have been let down. 

But I’m optimistic not only because of the depth that was added, but because everything I’ve been told about Carmen Bricillo and his teaching style has me very optimistic that things will be better for this unit. 

I’m not saying they’ll be a top 10 offensive line but so long as they finish in the top half of the league, I’d take that, and I think a lot of people would as well. 

Ultimately we’ll see if Joe Shoen did a good enough job, but there is no question the offensive line was prioritized, as it should have been.

Why did the Giants let their best player on offense walk (Saquon) and give $40M per year to a QB who is injury prone, unable to trust what talent he does have, and, when he does throw the ball, 30% of the time it's to the defense. Does the league need to intervene, a la George Young? – Joe R.

Joe, why on earth would the league need to intervene? Come on man, this isn’t anything close to being as bad a situation as it was when you had two owners who couldn’t agree on anything, thereby putting the team in a holding pattern. 

(For what it’s worth, the league suggested George Young to the feuding Maras because both sides did not want to give in to the other when it came to who was going to run the football operations. Both Maras agreed and the stalemate was settled.) 

Now to your first question, the answer is simple. Jones was coming off a solid year in which he took the team to the playoffs. The Giants were drafting in the bottom third of the draft and they knew, considering the other holes they had to fill, that they couldn’t afford to give up a ton of resources to move up in the draft. 

Given that Jones knew the system and had shown he could perform and win in it, re-signing him was the lesser of the evils. But, as you no doubt know, there’s the escape hatch in the contract after this year which screams out to me that while they were optimistic at the time of signing Jones that he’d be their long-term answer, they were also protecting themselves.

As for Barkley, let me ask you something. Would you have preferred they matched what Philly gave him and scraped the bottom of the barrel for offensive line help, which is at the very root of this team’s issues? Would you have preferred they not have the resources to pay Brian Burns, given how their pass rush desperately needed some more firepower? 

You are moaning about the Giants paying an injury-prone quarterback, but in your mind it was okay to overpay an injury-prone running back?

I understand Schoen’s approach. Whether it works out remains to be seen, but I definitely understand where he was coming from. And given how bad the offensive line was last year, I don’t fault him for shelling out resources to improve that unit.

At this point I am not sure there are plans to bring in a fullback just yet. Remember, undrafted rookie free agent Elijah Chatman can play fullback, so they might want to see what he brings to the table. 

If I’m not mistaken, I believe Brian Daboll, when he was in Buffalo, had a fullback on the roster so I could definitely see them maybe wanting one if the numbers work out and if they don’t get the kind of blocking they need from the tight ends.

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Patricia Traina

PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for over three decades for various media outlets. She is the host of the Locked On Giants podcast and the author of "The Big 50: New York Giants: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants" (Triumph Books, September 2020). View Patricia's full bio.

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