Ten Questions Ahead of the Giants First Padded Practice

The Giants will put the pads on for the first time Monday as the NFL inches another week closer to getting the season stated on time. So ahead of that key milestone, which this week will include an intrasquad scrimmage, here are 10 questions that will hopefully have been answered by the season starts.

Giants football is back.

Monday marks the first day that the team will be in full pads for practice, which means that after months of virtual meetings, followed by a gradual ramp-up period, football is on its way back.

But many questions need to be answered as this team prepares to launch a new era of Giants football.

Luckily, Monday is also the first day the media will be permitted to view practices. Still, it would be realistic to expect some of the many questions that have lingered all off-season to be answered.

So until the team hits the field bright and early Monday morning, here are ten questions that I look forward to seeing answered in what's left of training camp.

1) What does a Joe Judge practice look like? So far, Judge, the rookie head coach, has sounded nothing like a rookie. He’s confident, he’s self-assured, and seems to have a plan and a purpose for everything he does, all of which are good things.

With all that said, it will be interesting to see how his practices are structured. How much time, for example, is spent on individual drills and special teams?

How do the coaches interact with the players during the drills? These all might sound like minuscule questions, but the answers will tell us a lot about what we can expect.

2) What is the offensive line going to look like? My initial guess is the first-string offensive line will be, from left to right, Andrew Thomas, Will Hernandez, Spencer Pulley, Kevin Zeitler, and Nick Gates. Will that configuration be what starts the season or will Gates, who is still in the mix at center, win that battle?

And along that line, let’s talk about the center position. General manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge have continued to insist that Nick Gates is in the mix at center, an insistence they made even as the off-season program’s OTAs were canceled due to the COVID-19 virus. So clearly both have done their homework on Gates to where they feel comfortable enough with the thought of him at center.

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But that was before left tackle Nate Solder decided to opt-out for the season. It was first thought that Solder would play left tackle and Andrew Thomas right tackle, Solder’s opt-out likely means Thomas will move to left tackle, where he played in college, and the right tackle will be a wide-open competition between Gates, Cam Fleming, and Matt Peart.

The Giants need to hit a home run with this unit as anything less could make for another long season for the offense.

3) How does quarterback Daniel Jones look? We know about the added bulk and about some of the ways that it can benefit him. But the things to be looking for when the team mixes it up during 11-on-11 drills include how quickly he is making decisions and has he improved his ball security?

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Also worth watching is what differences there are in Jones’ stance and mechanics. Quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski spoke about any technique modifications made to Jones’ drop back and throwing motion as a matter of establishing a comfort level.

So how comfortable will Jones be, for example, working from a slightly widened base? And will any changes made to his throwing motion result in more mustard on the deep passes that are projected to be part of this offense?

The Giants need tight end Evan Engram, who has missed parts of his first three seasons with injuries, to stay healthy this year.  / Giants.com

4) Are all the injured players fully cleared to practice? Tight end Evan Engram, receiver Corey Coleman and inside linebacker Ryan Connelly all passed their physicals and are cleared to do all the on-field work so far. Ditto for Leonard Williams, who on Friday was removed from the Non-Football Injury List.

But when it comes to the 11-on-11 stuff, sometimes the trainers will hold a player rehabbing from injury back at first as a precaution. 

With there having been no on-field work until earlier this month, will that have been enough time for the players to get the green light from medical, or will they err on the side of caution since there’s still another four weeks or so until the season starts?

5) How will all the talent at linebacker shake out? The Giants re-signed Markus Golden and David Mayo, they added Kyler Fackrell and Blake Martinez via free agency, and they drafted four youngsters—Cam Brown, Carter Coughlin, TJ Brunson, and Tae Crowder.

That’s a large number of linebackers—and it’s probably not a stretch to predict that there won’t be room for all of them on the initial 53-man roster. So where will they play in defensive coordinator Patrick Graham’s “multiple” defense?

“During this developmental stage when we are trying to find out what we have,” Graham told reporters earlier in the week.

“We have to figure out, ‘Is this guy a better rusher if we stand him up on the inside, is he a better rusher on the outside, is he better on the left, is he better from the right?’ I think it’s going to be some trial and error and getting everybody on the same page. Trying different packages, different schemes, and seeing how it plays out.”

6) Who will be the starting corners? Off-season free agent acquisition James Bradberry is going to be one of the starters, but who lines up opposite of him on the perimeter is anyone’s guess right now.

The dilemma was created due to DeAndre Baker’s legal issues, which have landed him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List and Sam Beal’s decision to take the COVID-19 opt-out option for the year.

“Right now, we don’t even have a true depth chart. We call it an alignment chart. It’s just where you’re aligning for that practice or that drill,” said defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson Friday.

The Giants did try to sign veteran Ross Cockrell to fill the void, but that deal failed to materialize. 

Based on the Giants' pattern thus far, they have mostly gone for taller cornerbacks who stand at least 6-0, which is why if Ballentine plays well this summer, he could have the inside track.

But nothing is set in stone, according to Henderson.

“Joe’s made it very plain to us that everybody competes,” he said. “Nobody is given anything."

With that all said, this will be one of the most interesting battles of the summer. And who knows? Maybe the coaches will rotate at that spot?

7) What will the offense and defense look like? Ever since the Giants offensive and defensive coordinators were hired, we’ve been researching film here on the site to piece together what we might see from Jason Garrett (offense) and Patrick Graham (defense).

But if there has been one common theme regardless of who has spoken, it's that the schemes will be based on what the players do best.

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That right there is encouraging, especially how the last coaching staff seemed to be more committed to fitting the talent into the scheme than matching the scheme to the talent.

8) How many rookies will start for this team? In listening to Judge, the term “starter” might not mean a whole lot, nor should it considering that there have been cases where a guy might be on the field for the first play of the game but end up playing fewer snaps than guys in the sub-packages.

So a better question to ask is how many rookies will make a significant impact this year. Offensive tackle Andrew Thomas and safety Xavier McKinney are two guys who will only be on the field to start games but expect them to log a lot of snaps each week.

I also suspect cornerback Darnay Holmes and edge Carter Coughlin will see a fair amount of snaps as part of sub-packages, and I think Cam Brown has a chance as well of getting on the field on special teams.

Perhaps as the season wears on and injuries pop up, offensive linemen Shane Lemieux and Matt Peart will crack into the lineup, but right now, I’d be surprised to see them out there on Day 1.

9) Will they regret not pursuing a blue-chip pass rusher? The Giants have been trying for several years to develop a homegrown pass rusher who can be that blue-chip guy who makes opponents sweat.

Instead, they've tried to go the free-agent route to find that guy, having modest success with Olivier Vernon from a few years ago to more recent success with Markus Golden. Golden is back for another year and will be joined by another edge rusher on a "show-me" deal, Kyler Fackrell.

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Meanwhile, the Giants have a pair of promising young veterans in Lorenzo Carter and Oshane Ximines who will hopefully take that big step forward in their respective developments. The Giants also added a couple of rookies in Carter Coughlin and Cam Brown, who are projected to see spot duty on pass-rush packages.

But will all those edge rushers be enough? Should the Giants bite the bullet and sign a more established pass rusher like Jadeveon Clowney?

They'll hopefully find out by the time camp is over.

Giants head coach Joe Judge / Giants.com

10) Is Judge the right head coach for this team? This question won't necessarily be answered by the time the padded practice part of training camp is over, but it is fair to say that Judge is off to a promising start.

So far, he has said and done all the right things, including handling the various twists and turns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the off-season arrests of cornerback DeAndre Baker and kicker Aldrick Rosas.

But what happens if the team fractures under the weight of losing or worse? Does Judge, who plans to institute a leadership council, stand firm in the face of adversity, or will he crumble under its weight as McAdoo did?

The bottom line is that the Giants need to hope that the third time is a charm when it comes to picking a head coach as this franchise cannot keep affording to start from scratch. So far, so good, but tougher tests are still to come.

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