Giants rookie class

Robinson, Ezeudu, McKethan, Beavers, and Davidson, the bulk of which have been injured so far. Davidson has been a contributor.

making these proclamations THIS early is being ridiculous. Outside of some truly unusually dominant play 4 games into an NFL career teaches us very, very little. Let's not lose track of the fact Andrew Thomas, an All-Pro level talent looked "quite bad" as a rookie, and that was over a full-season. I'd even argue Neal has looked "better than" Thomas did at this point (no, I don't think Neal will be better than Thomas) and 4 games is 4 games but new system, new coaches, and #rookies!

I think he’s played well, although not perfectly, through the first quarter of the season. He’ll only get better.

out of their 11 draft picks 2 hit IR in the preseason and 1 UDFA (Fox) made it, so rookies comprise about 19% of the 53 man roster and have made about that many starts.

Neal = 4
Bellinger = 4
Flott = 2
Thibodeaux = 2 (injured the other 2)
Robinson = 1 (injured the other 3)
Belton = 1 (injured 2 others)
McFadden = 1

3 other rookies (Fox, Ezeudu and Davidson) have played snaps in most games and had Belton/Wandale/Thibodeaux not dealt with injuries these numbers would be higher.

thibodeaux and bellinger in particular have now made key plays that have led to wins. thibs fumble recovery and bellingers TD.

if Robinson can come back soon and start the rest of the year it's not inconceivable that rookies end up producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% of the starting lineup this year since he'd basically make it 4 full time rookie starters.

out of any draft class you hope to get 2 players who move on to second contracts so 4 rookie starters would be an excellent haul and basically the equivalent of 2 draft classes (which to be fair is the approximate draft capital they had).

This would be a surprise because?

In comment 15846049 Spider43 said:

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This would be a surprise because?

Roster has been in a poor state for a decade.

We've got two guys on IR too, one who would have started the first four games, the other who have also gotten a start by now given the issues in the interior line.

say something positive about the coaching staff

all be decent to excellent players.
Flott is the only one I’m concerned about playing to the level expected of him.
No real reason to pinpoint, just the little he’s played he seems lost.
Just an opinion.

He needs to bulk up some but he's shown some decent cover skills.

Neal has a lot of learning to do in pass blocking but he already is a quality run blocker. Could be a real road grader on the right side.

I don't care what the talking heads say. Just like saying I loved the Barkley pick. Imagine this team without him.

flip side is a first time HC easily could have leaned on veterans early on and he hasn't. Daboll has done exactly what most of us hoped a new coach would do. A big-time pet peeve of mine as a sports fans is a "bad" team wasting an opportunity to figure out what they have and for young players to get a lot of reps (and take their lumps).

The bad news....the Giants have 6 rookie starting!

Longterm.....this is great experience....and will be foundational

and if they develop it could be a good class. But, the rookies have not played well so far in games. There is nothing wrong with admitting that. In fact, I think Sy had McFadden as a dud for the past game. Neal has been horrendous in pass pro and Thibodeux got better from a nothing game. I am not ready to make any judgment other than they are starting their development and at this point it is probably too early to tell, but I doubt we have any rookies that are going to be in contention for ROY if that matters.

I could understand the snarky comments about our terrible roster, but we're 3-1. The power ranking have us in the middle of the pact for the first time in years and we've had injuries that in prior years would have already derailed our entire season.
Lighten up Francis.

in starts and injuries

Lots of rookies this year.

Lots of holdovers that the new regime doesn't have confidence in.

Lots of early injuries to holdovers.

3-1 is not relevant.

your vets suck or you have injuries

Who is claiming our draft class sucks? I'd argue the exact opposite. Thibs looked good vs. Chicago, Neal rebounded vs. the Bears & is a beast run blocking, Bellinger looks like a keeper, Flott looks like he can play on this level, Belton seems like he's got a future, Beavers looked like a stud before getting injured.

Also, it is October 4th.

injuries impacting it so far.

In comment 15846269 uther99 said:

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your vets suck or you have injuries

Possibly. But aren't there other bad teams in the NFL?

In comment 15846006 KDavies said:

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Robinson, Ezeudu, McKethan, Beavers, and Davidson, the bulk of which have been injured so far. Davidson has been a contributor.

I think Ezeudu and Beavers each would have gotten at least one start by now. Beavers was injured and they used Ezeudu in camp more as a backup tackle than a possible starting guard.