I know that optimism is sometimes frowned upon and a6 times the fans are like Charlie Brown, ready for greatness only to have Lucy )The Giants) pull the football away.
Still, it seems to me like this is the best team we have had in a while. A contender if DJ can play reasonably well and stay healthy. I know some of you think that is impossible - but there are reasons to think it could happen.
It seems like virtually every offseason question is getting a positive answer SO FAR.
Team looks tougher - harder camp
DJ health
RB depth
OLine starters
Nabers a stud?
Hyatt developing
TE room depth
IDL depth
ILB depth
S depth
Burns a stud?
KT improvement
Still unknown
Can JMS and Neal get healthy (We are OK without them but a lot better if they blossom)
CB2 Will so,eone step up?
Edge depth
OT depth
Known negative
Lock
QB - DJ healthy/maybe even good, but show me in season.
RB - 4 players looking good
WR - Young, fast, deep froup with a potential star
IOL - Solid vets with high floor
OT - Solid starters w questionable reserves
TE - 3 solid players - including rookie with upside
DL - Dexter and several players who are looking good ish.
ED - 1.5 studs and questionable depth (Some potential}
ILB - 1 stud 1 starter, 2 intriging prospects + Beavers/Adams
CB - 1 solid starter battle for CB2
SCB - 2 good options (McCloud/Phillips) + Simmons
S - 1 proven starter 3 impressive young players.
OK guys tell me why I am wrong and should reset my expectations.
Basically - Schoen's planted a lot of seeds and made a lot of investments in young players.
Either he picked good players or he didn't, and we're about to find out. He made a comment on the broadcast "it's starting to come together". We'll see.
It has been the OL....after Thomas went down last year....destroy the season.
Early results indicate that our new OL coach might make the OL decent this year
So what other weaknesses will disappoint us?
I agree. EVERY team has problems - we just know ours better.
When you have an All=Pro caliber LT and DT, Pro Bowl caliber Edge, another quality Edge, a Pro Bowl Mike, young receivers with a variety of plus skills, a good looking RBBC, etc, the pieces are there to compete for double-digit wins.
Look forward to it. I am as jaded as anyone, but I can't help but like whay I am hearing so far from multiple sources.
As one example, CB. One reposted review of Hawkins from last pre said you couldn't tell which was the #1 pick; it looked like that the other night too. You can't rely on him reaching that ceiling, but nothing yet says he can't. Based on him and a few candidates, CB could be just OK or a strength. But the unit won't suck.
Or WR. We were the league's worst 2 seasons ago; this year we might be amongst the best.
All fans are excited this time of year; we have more justification than most. Tons of young, explosive players on both sides of the ball.
In terms of on-paper talent, this is the best roster the Giants have had in years.
LOL, Tragedy! Seriously, at this point I can see the Giants claiming or signing an OT or CB or top return guy. only Of course that could change.
You want them to finally be good so you're willing to draw conclusions on preseason practices and a week one scrimmage where no starters played.
It's the same trap, over and over.
Preseason is total bullshit. I've seen Giant teams go undefeated in preseason and get buried in the regular season. I've seen Giant teams look like shit in preseason and the first game of the season and go on to win the Super Bowl.
We still have a qb room where the third string UDFA may be the best passer, a ham and egger at rb with a never was and a rookie at rb, and some question marks in the secondary. Our vaunted wideouts were AWOL against a Lions team that is trying to get to the season sans injury.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves; there's a lot of work to do.
This. We also haven’t seen the starters in game action yet.
The roster probably doesn’t suck because they made some good moves, but it’s probably somewhere between average and sucks. The positions it’s weak at (QB, pass rush depth, CB) are the ones that take an average roster to great. (I don’t count oline depth because nobody really has oline depth)
Quote:
There's talent for sure. But each team has some talent on their rosters. That's why the difference between 10-7 & 7-10 isn't that great.
When you have an All=Pro caliber LT and DT, Pro Bowl caliber Edge, another quality Edge, a Pro Bowl Mike, young receivers with a variety of plus skills, a good looking RBBC, etc, the pieces are there to compete for double-digit wins.
The reason the over and under is only 6.5 wins is that they have also taken into account What Can Go Wrong.
I was going to say this team has so much more depth than what we have seen in over a decade.
Recent posts on this thread point to how the changes have not moved the needle on the win/loss expectations. However, I think it is difficult for Vegas to place weight on bench players and translate that into wins and losses.
It may have no impact, but we have had starters who would be backups on other teams, and our backups were a serious liability.
Now, I feel more comfortable with our ability to plug a hole (at most positions, not all) should a starter leave the game. These guys also immediately improve our special teams too.
I know we still need the QB, but our championship teams would not have been successful without roster depth.
The reason the over and under is only 6.5 wins is that they have also taken into account What Can Go Wrong.
The schedule really is extraordinarily difficult. That’s another factor. If WFT revives, which I think it will, we barely have any games against weak opponents.