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The New York Giants have had a revolving door at the head coach for the better part of the last decade — ever since the team and two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin parted ways.
For the everyone’s sake, the Giants have to hope they got it right this time around.
One of the players most excited about the new regime is Oshane Ximines, who didn’t see things go the way he would have liked over the last couple of years. Ximines had a crucial penalty late in the game against Kansas City Chiefs last season that left him out of favor with Joe Judge & Co. After that, he was a healthy scratch for six of the remaining nine games.
“I’m glad I have the opportunity to learn from all these new guys in the building. The last two years didn’t go how I wanted,” Ximines told the New York Post.
“You know it hurt. I didn’t even have a jersey sometimes, but it’s a business. You have to wear your big-boy pants every day, so I didn’t look for [pity]. I just tried to go hard in practice, because I’m living my dream and nobody can take that from me.”
After losing Lorenzo Carter via free agency, the Giants drafted Kayvon Thibodeaux which could decrease the number of chances for Ximines. But as Leonard Williams alluded to recently, defensive coordinator Wink Martindale will want to keep everyone fresh. So we might see a defensive line rotation closer to what we saw during the Giants’ Super Bowl years.
“Wink was impressed with how they worked that part of the game, keeping guys fresh, how the units worked so well together,” Williams told NorthJersey.com. “We talked about that in our meeting room, and that when we put a second-string guy in, that depth can be just as effective, and the first-string guys will be even more impactful.”
That being said, Ximines is excited for a fresh start and excited to make the best of whatever role the Giants have him in.
“It’s my second coaching change, and I felt rejuvenated the last time, too,” Ximines said. “The past is the past. You can’t do anything about it. It doesn’t matter what situation you are in or where you are on the depth chart: Every day is an opportunity to show what you can do. When guys start to get away from that, that’s when they start to go backwards.
“There is going to be a lot of opportunity to share the cake, so I’m excited to see how it goes. There is a looser leash on you. You can just go create pressure, and that’s always fun.”
Head coach Brian Daboll is a big believer in giving everyone an opportunity.
“You want to try to do it your way, be true to yourself, give the guys opportunities to be themselves, let them either get with the program or not get with the program,” Daboll said. “Sometimes it’s hard as a coach not to have any preconceived notions about players, staff, whoever it may be, because it’s such a small group. But I think everybody should be afforded that opportunity.”
What Ximines does with his opportunity is up to him, but the talent is there and he can most certainly contribute to a youthful defense trying to turn things around for Big Blue.
As the Giants search for an identity on the team, it is nice to see that coach Daboll’s staff isn’t dismissing anyone’s potential impact on the team.
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