It’s an off day ‘things I think’
Where do the reeling, 2-5 New York Giants go from here? Let’s discuss some thoughts on that, and a wide range of Giants topics on an off day for the team before they begin preparations for next Monday’s road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Status quo at quarterback
Head coach Brian Daboll said Sunday night that Daniel Jones would continue as the team’s starting quarterback. After watching the film of the 28-3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and sleeping on that decision, Daboll reiterated it on Monday.
“I think he gives us the best chance, number one,” Daboll said. “I thought there were a lot of plays that he did exactly what he needed to do and then look, there were some plays where it wasn’t just on Daniel, it was a collection of things. It wasn’t just one person, protection, or a route. It was a collective deal, and we’ll sit here, we’ll watch the tape. We’ll do everything we can do to be better this week.”
Everything I wrote about Jones last week still holds. He needed to be at least as good this season as he was in 2022, probably better, to justify being the quarterback beyond this year. He hasn’t been.
Jones is a placeholder without a quarterback on the roster to take his place. The quarterback of the future is not on the roster.
I have said it before, but the Giants are spinning their wheels with Jones at quarterback. Some weeks it will look fine. Some weeks it won’t. Switching to Drew Lock or Tommy DeVito will satisfy a fan base tired of watching, and talking about, Jones and his deficiencies. It won’t significantly alter the Giants’ 2024 fortunes.
Giants’ fans want hope, and I know it feels like there isn’t any right now. Reality is, the Giants know what they have and know what they are right now. They are doing the best they can to make it work. And, overall this season it hasn’t looked good.
Removing Jones from the lineup now is something I know many fans want. As he said above, it is something Daboll won’t do yet. I think the coach is telling the truth when he says he thinks Jones gives the team the best chance to win among the quarterbacks it has.
Remember, Daboll’s job might be hanging in the balance and he has to win some games to ensure that he keeps it. Replacing Jones is waiving the white flag not only on Jones’ Giants career, but on this season. How would that sit with Brian Burns? Dexter Lawrence? Bobby Okereke? Jon Runyan? Darius Slayton? It matters because Daboll doesn’t want to lose the locker room, either.
Truth is, though, the Giants will keep spinning their wheels — sometimes offering glimpses of what they could be but too often falling short — until they can find a quarterback who can do what Jones has been unable to do. Lift them up. Make them better. That guy is not on the team right now.
On to Pittsburgh
Things might get worse for the Giants before they get better. Football fans across the nation are once again going to be subjected to the primetime-phobic Giants when they travel to Pennsylvania to face the Steelers on Monday Night Football.
The Giants are 5.5-point underdogs, per FanDuel Sportsbook.
Daboll appeared to try and set low expectations on Monday for the scuffling Giants.
Daboll said the Giants have to “work hard to get ready for a great Pittsburgh Steelers team.”
I am not sure I would classify the Steelers as “great.” They are, though, tied atop the AFC North with the Baltimore Ravens at 5-2. They are second in the league in points allowed. The Steelers, with Russell Wilson now at quarterback, had their best offensive game of the season (37 points, 409 yards) in a Week 7 thrashing of the New York Jets. The Steelers have T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward, who could be expected to dominate the Giants’ offensive line.
Jones is now 1-15 in primetime starts, and the Giants are 2-18 in primetime games since Jones and Dexter Lawrence were drafted in 2019.
This matchup does not bode well for the Giants. So, perhaps Daboll building up the Steelers is a smart play.
Offensive line issues
Josh Ezeudu is a liability at left tackle. After watching what we all saw last season with Ezeudu at left tackle, it is mystifying that the Giants went into this season without a different backup plan for Andrew Thomas than turning back to Ezeudu, a player they drafted to be a guard.
Ezeudu’s final stat line from Sunday wasn’t terrible. After those two sacks, he gave up just one more pressure. He finished as the team’s second-highest graded offensive lineman, which is more of an indictment of how the rest of the line played than an endorsement of Ezeudu.
Ezeudu, as Nick Falato expertly detailed, had a lot of help from his friends as the game against the Eagles moved along. That, in its own way, limited what the Giants could try to do offensively.
Short-term, the issue for the Giants is what to do at left tackle. Daboll on Monday left the door open for replacing Ezeudu. No matter what they do at left tackle — keep Ezeudu there, use newly-signed Chris Hubbard, move Jermaine Eluemunor, try Evan Neal — the loss of Thomas is going to compromise the offense. The Giants are going to have to chip and double-team to help whoever is at that spot.
Long-term, I’m more concerned about John Michael Schmitz. The 2022 second-round pick has been better this season than he was as a rookie, and that is a positive, but his pass blocking remains woeful. He gave up a sack and four pressures on Sunday vs. the Eagles, and probably could have been charged with at least one more sack. He had a 30.7 PFF pass-blocking grade.
For the season, only three of 39 qualifying centers have pass-blocking grades lower than Schmitz’s 41.9. Only two have allowed more pressures.
Schmitz doesn’t look like a bust. But, it is fair to question if he is going to become the big-time player the Giants hoped when they took him 57th overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
If Schmitz doesn’t develop into the long-term answer at center, and he has to pass block better than he has thus far to do so, GM Joe Schoen would be 0 for 4 in offensive line draft picks. None of Neal, Ezeudu, and Marcus McKethan have been what was hoped when they were drafted. McKethan isn’t even in the league at the moment.
That’s not a good look for Schoen.
One more frustrating offensive line note. The swing tackle the Giants had but would not use last season — Matt Peart — moved on to the Denver Broncos this season. Peart, a third-round pick by Dave Gettleman who could never outright win the right tackle job for the Giants, is playing well for the Broncos.
Peart has played 128 offensive snaps for Denver, spending time at both left and right tackle. He has a 71.9 overall PPF grade, which would be a career-best if he were to maintain it for the rest of the season. He also has yet to surrender a sack in 77 pass-blocking snaps.
I still don’t understand why the Giants wouldn’t use Peart a year ago. It is also frustrating to watch yet another former Giant offensive lineman go somewhere else and perform better with his new team than he did with the Giants.
Trade deadline
The Nov. 5 NFL trade deadline is two weeks away. The Giants have to be sellers, don’t they?
The two most logical trade candidates are wide receiver Darius Slayton and edge defender Azeez Ojulari. Both are in the final years of their contracts, and I suspect they will each pursue new opportunities during the offseason.
Of course, trading either player is complicated by injuries. Edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux is on IR, and now wide receiver Jalin Hyatt is dealing with a rib injury.
Would the Giants be open to trading Evan Neal? Would anyone be willing to trade for him at this point? I doubt the Giants could get more than a conditional seventh-round pick that might become a sixth-rounder based on playing time, but if they aren’t going to play him I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider it.
