New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll held a press conference late Wednesday afternoon to discuss the finalization of the team’s 53-man roster.
Overall, the Giants managed to re-sign many of the players they had waived on Tuesday to the practice squad. Schoen sees those players as the team’s real depth — an extension of the roster — and hopes to get a chance to develop some of the young players.
“I’m glad were able to get guys back on the practice squad. Sometimes you worry about losing some guys,” Schoen told reporters. “Again, you put some time and effort, our coaching staff does a good job of developing these young men. If you get the opportunity to continue to work with them, you’re excited about that. Also, the practice squad is an extension of the roster.
“You try to tread between developmental players and guys that can come up on Sunday, if you need them to play, if something happens on a Friday or something, that they’ve played in Sunday games, they know the offense, you can trust them to execute their assignment. We like the group we have right now.”
Schoen said the Giants only put one waiver claim in — for Green Bay defensive back Anthony Johnson, Jr. — and they got him. It was no secret they needed to pick up some more depth and talent in the secondary and Johnson was the player they targeted.
Schoen intimated that players on the waiver wire aren’t always as big an answer as people might think.
“Sometimes it’s fantasy football, people aren’t cutting good football players and you’re not going to put in 15 claims across the league that are going to change your roster,” he said.
With only depth pieces added, the Giants remain thin at the cornerback position but Schoen is unconcerned.
“I feel good with it,” he said. “You get a certain amount of swings, and certain players are available. It’s a position we’ll continue to look at, as we will with all positions. If there’s an opportunity to upgrade there, we will.
“If you called every team, 32 out of 32 would probably say they are looking for depth at corner. It’s a difficult position to find. We’re always going to look to upgrade across the entire roster. But that position in particular, one or two injuries away. There’s not a lot of teams that have three good corners on their roster as you really look through it.”
Daboll said he was confident the Giants’ No. 2 cornerback job, which has been a competition between Cor’Dale Flott and Nick McCloud, would work itself out.
“I have a good feel for it. I’m not going to share it with you right now. I have a good idea of the direction it’s going,” he said.
The question of whether Evan Neal could switch from tackle to guard was also squashed once again by Daboll.
“We have enough guards,” he said. “He needs to continue to work at right tackle.”
Meanwhile, Schoen addressed the Giants carrying three quarterbacks and pointed to the team’s past injury issues at the position as one of the reasons why they decided to go with three this summer.
Actually, the third quarterback rule change and the prospect of losing Tommy DeVito on the waiver wire were just as valid.
“There’s always been some injuries with quarterbacks as is. I think it is the way things went last year,” Schoen said. “We like where Tommy is. Drew (Lock) had the injury, unfortunately. We’re going to continue to work with him. Daniel, we just think it’s probably the best thing to do right now with us.”
Schoen then gave an honest assessment of starting quarterback Daniel Jones, who is returning from an offseason that included rehabbing his torn ACL and dealing with the team seeking his successor in the draft.
“From what you guys have seen, Daniel early on, there was a little bit of rust. I thought he really picked it up and had a good camp,” he said. “I understand maybe there’s a throw he would have wanted back in the Houston game. I thought overall, when you step back and look at the game, if you want to look through that lens, I do think he had a good camp. Again, in the Houston game, that preseason game when he played, with the exception of one throw, I thought he played well.”
As usual, the roster remains “fluid” and Giant fans can expect Schoen to continue to tweak the roster if and when he has a chance to better it.
“The goal is to win games, always,” he said.
The Giants won six games in 2023 after winning nine in 2022. They hope to get back to the playoffs at the very least in 2024.
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