OL, DL, Safety and Beason.
OL: I would say even with Beatty gone for a big part of it and Newhouse at RT, with possibly Jerry starting.....the OL is holding up better then expected. Thanks to Flowers, who looks to be the real thing......Pugh needs to play better. Richburg needs to stay healthy. Schwartz should start at LG.
It is not great at creating running lanes, but better at pass blocking. Far from an elite line but more servicable then it has been and good enough to allow Eli & Co. To do their thing.....hopefully.
Safety: Tons of injuries. Losing Bennett hurts but I am hopeful that Steve Brown helps settle one side with Copper Taylor, Merriweather to compliment Collins rookie year. I am not sure if we answered our concern about coverage. Still too early to tell. It does feel better having more experience at the position.
DL: How it is currently constructed, scares the hell out of me. Kuhn seems lost to me.....I am in the Kwall camp.....that it is a failed experiment that will end shortly. I hope. I like what I have seen from Bromley snd Ellis. But Hankins is not showing much......I love Ayers. OO looks promising. I expect more from Moore.....have not seen enough from Selvie. The old JPP is needed.......much like before camp, I feel the parts are there....just not in the right spots......if Kuhn plays.....and resembles what we have seen.....we are in for a long season.....the Lbers will be exposed and the safeties will be caught short....everything crumbles. Very concerning.
Beason: I was concern about his ability to stay healthy but I really concern about his foot speed.....he is too slow to play in todays NFL, same goes for McLain......Hell, team speed in general is a concern, especially when you see what the Eagles are doing.......
Thoughts?
The OLine, RB's and receivers should be good enough to allow Manning to shine. Will he shine? That answer will go a long way in determining our fate.
Defense....it better be as George Selvie discussed his experience was last year in Dallas, because you would be hard pressed to look at that defensive depth chart and tell me that we will have a top 10 defense. People need to make a name for themselves. Spags has his work cut out for him.
Anyway, based on the concerns of the poster, they probably are the biggest specific concerns. Here is my take:
OL - Beatty's injury hurts bad but players will get hurt. If the injury bug doesn't bite us big time, we actually aren't in awful shape.
So far so good with Flowers. Pugh has made some mistakes that you probably would expect in a new position. I think he's got similar skills to Seubert where he will get out on sweeps and to the second level and is good technically. These 2 will get better. Same with Richburg unless his injury is really dehabilitative. He is probably the key because I don't think highly of Reynolds.
On the right side, Schwartz needs to stay healthy. He is solid when healthy and I'm not down on him. I think they knew they needed to manage him early in camp and he should be fine at guard. We need to help Newhouse. Is he worse than other people's backups? No. The real key is that we can't afford another injury until Beatty gets back.
Jerry - Everybody loves to hate on the guy but you can get by with him as your worst starter. With Scwhartz back, he is in the ideal spot as a backup.
IF (IF IF) Beatty returns, the top 7 isn't bad.
DL - I think the depth is there that if we rotate, we should be able to play much better against the run. I don't think we have a true 10-12 sack guy but if Spags can design his blitzes effectively (key - stop the run), we have some athleticism (Moore, Odi) that should be able to pressure the quarterback.
The big key is Kuhn. I don't think he is an NFL player based on his body of work and more importantly recent play. If he is starting, there is something very wrong. I still think he has to get cut unless they cut Jenkins. He at best should be the 4th DT and not dress with no other injuries.
S - There is upside with Taylor/Collins. If they can use the short term IR for Behre and get him back, there may be some hope.
Beason - Anything we get from him is a bonus but we hopefully have some depth behind him. McClain played well last year for his limits. As a guy who plays running downs, you can get by with him. On passing downs, we didn't have a replacement last year. Between Thomas and the guy from New England, we do have some guys who can play Middle in the Nickle. Kennard's pass rushing may leave him on the field also.
The sky isn't falling yet. We need some breaks but I still feel that we can make the playoffs if things go well.
The DL scares me the most. I think we're going to have a tough, tough time getting a pass rush & that's going to hurt the rest of the defense, DBs especially. I actually feel somewhat confident with Collins & Taylor back there.
I think he's the one part of the DL you don't need to worry about.
Four years of shit shows is ENOUGH.
Other than that I think they're solid. :)
I was just going OL,DL,LB,Secondary.
The offense? Who knows? Could be explosive. Could be a dud. The OL is suspect, but so are injuries to WRs. If Randle and Cruz don't play in game 1 who else is out there?
I was actually feeling better about the special teams until the Jets game. Hopefully, there were a bunch of guys playing on specials that won't be a part of the 53.
Coaching? I'm not really worried about it, but I'm afraid they're gone if this is a bad season. They replaced the offensive coordinator then the defensive coordinator. If they bring in a new coach then those two positions get replaced again. Too much upheaval. But that's for long-term worry.
But in the end, Safety is the biggest, flaming red flag and I'm surprised by how quickly people forget that more than any other factor, more than Plax's bullet, more than losing Spagnulo, more than an aging offensive line - BAD Safety play with ZERO depth is what killed the strongest of the Coughlin/Manning Giant teams.
From the end of 07' through week 5 of the 09' season, the Giants were a friggin' unstoppable dynamo. Best team in the NFC in 08', and they were off to a monster start in 09'.
Giants 23, Redskins 17
Giants 33, Cowboys 31
Giants 24, Buccaneers 0
Giants 27, Chiefs 16
Giants 44, Raiders 7
Then Drew Brees showed the rest of the league the Giants Achilles heel.
Saints 48, Giants 27
And it was all over.
This years staffing at Safety doesn't look any better than 09' to me.
The Giants play Brees again this season.
Yaay.
He has injury concerns no doubt, but his speed isn't an issue.
- Defense
- Special Teams
- Coaching
Other than that, I think we're good!
Other than that I think they're solid. :)
Ugh wow, haha... I didn't intentionally copy you.
defense. We have improved the personnel on offense so i think they will be fine unless we take injury hits on the OL.
I just have no idea what to expect it seems we have ALOT of holes and very few good-great players.
On the eve of the season I've got two specific concerns about things that could directly impact wins and losses: 1) kicking game 2) Beckham.
I thought the kicking game was stagnant before camp started; the talk of Brown's injury and Weatherford's form would definitely have me concerned if they are both in their same roles week one. If things stay as they are we may lose a close game or two that we otherwise might have won.
As for Beckham, how is he going to handle having a bullseye on his back? How did he handle an offseason of attention? His talent is beyond question, but does he have the mindset to improve to keep ahead of a league that is now gunning for him?
The OL? Much better than expected for me. I like Schwartz at RG. Flowers is a beast. LG and C are in good hands. We only have RT to worry about. I think we'll be OK here.
DL? Big concern. However, I really like Moore as a situational pass rusher and Odi as a full time starter. If Odi is the guy I think he is we'll be OK at DE although it sure would help if Ayers can play a full season.
DT? Is a major concern if you think Kuhn is a starter or a guy who will get significant PT. I don't think we have to worry about that. Ellis, Jenkins and Bromley will play more at DT.
Safety is a fucking mess. I'm hoping Merriweather can give us some quality play. We're going to need it or catch a break and find somebody after the cuts.
My concern is an overall lack of speed/AA at DB (especially with this lumbering crew at safety). We need nickel and dime options who can come in and cover and provide range. Losing Jackson and Gordy hurts a lot. They could have done it and also stepped in for one of our slow S when playing teams like PHI.
The receivers
The RBs
The QBs
The TEs
The Kicker
The Punter
The LS