The NFL is a copycat league and the 30 teams that are not participating in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday will be taking notes on how to get themselves to next year’s game.
For the New York Giants, they’ve been down so long that they’ll be filling notebooks with data and ideas as they start anew once again with a new coaching staff.
What can the Giants learn from these two teams?
Well, from the San Francisco 49ers, they can learn balance. The Niners were second in overall defense and fourth in offense. They allowed just 169.2 passing yards per game and were fifth in sacks.
That’s easy to do when you have a stud such as Nick Bosa on your defensive line, but their defense has stars at all three levels in Arik Armstead, Fred Warner and Richard Sherman.
The Giants need to find a solid backbone on defense and they may be on their way with some of the young players they already drafted (Dexter Lawrence, Ryan Connelly, DeAndre Baker, Sam Beal), but they’ll need more than those guys. It would also help if new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham called an aggressive game on Sundays.
On offense, the Niners can pass the football with Jimmy Garappolo and his fine receiving corps, but they are a running team. The Niners averaged 144.1 yards per game on the ground in 2019, second only to the Baltimore Ravens’ remarkable 206.0.
The Giants want to be a run-first team as well under new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and head coach Joe Judge. The Giants have Saquon Barkley where the Niners use a committee. Their leading rusher was Raheem Mostert with 772 yards. The Giants will be looking for depth in their backfield, especially now that Barkley has shown that he is not invincible.
The Giants could also learn a lot from the Chiefs. Their quick-strike offense is the new NFL model on how to beat teams — no strike that, blow teams away.
Kansas City has Patrick Mahomes, the NFL’s latest golden arm and the Giants’ Daniel Jones isn’t in his class as a passer, but he may not have to be.
The Giants’ hiring of Garrett is a very underrated one. In 2019, Garrett’s Dallas Cowboys scored just 17 less points than Kansas City, but out-passed them by nearly 300 yards. Dallas averaged 8.2 yards per passing play to the Chiefs’ 8.1 and 6.5 to 6.1 on all offensive plays.
The Giants may have already begun to move in the direction of the Chiefs by hiring Garrett. The Giants plan on taking advantage of Jones’ mobility and beefing up their running attack and offensive line, so they’re already on their way.
The final thing they will learn is how valuable tight end play is in this league. Two of the league’s top players at the position in Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and George Kittle of San Francisco.
The Giants still have Evan Engram, but his inability to remain healthy has been a problem. Rookie Kaden Smith showed promise but only on short patterns. I wouldn’t be surprised if they draft a dynamic tight end in this draft.
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