The New York Giants’ three coordinators are confident in what the team has, even with a 2-7 record and some questions remaining.
The New York Giants (2-7) host the Philadelphia Eagles (3-4-1) this Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in a game that could help the Giants get back into the NFC East race.
On Thursday, the Giants’ three coordinators spoke to the media about the state of the team as they approach this important Week 10 contest.
The Giants will get left guard Will Hernandez back this week from the Reserve/COVID-19 list and he will likely displace rookie Shane Lemieux, who played well in his absence.
That could manifest itself in other ways as well as offensive coordinator Jason Garrett discussed the team’s plan along the O-line, which suddenly is far from sketched in stone.
“I think with our offensive line situation, we don’t really have any established players. We don’t have guys who have played a long, long time and are kind of locked in,” said Garrett. “We just talked about Nick Gates just playing center for the first time. Cam Fleming’s whole career has been play right, play left, all of that, be ready for any situation. Then when you’re talking about three different rookies playing, we’re looking to give those guys opportunities to play. Each of those guys has handled those opportunities well, and they’re deserving of more opportunities to play.
Offensive lines through the years, when they’ve been established, five guys are in there and that can be really good for your team. But when you’re trying to build a team and build a line, you have to give guys opportunities to do different things. One of the things we always emphasize with our offensive line is the ability to play different spots. If you’re a one-hole player on the offensive line, that’s not real good for you and that’s not real good for our team. You try to use that to your advantage, give guys opportunities, and if they do well, they earn more opportunities.”
Special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey spoke about the recently waived kickoff returner Corey Ballentine and his likely replacement, former college sensation Dante Pettis.
“Wouldn’t say for Corey it didn’t click with him,” said McGaughey, “He averaged almost 24 yards a return last year. With the COVID and no offseason, a ton of things that went into that. It’s never really kind of flowed like we wanted it to. I think it was just a matter of time, we put Dion in there. It was progressing in that direction. Corey is going to be fine. We wish him the best of luck. He’s a great kid, I love him to death. He’s going to be successful in this league.
“We’re still going through an evaluation process with all these guys” McGaughey said of Pettis, who was activated this week. “He just got in. We want to let him get his feet wet first. Just trying to get him his bearings from the Bay (San Francisco) to Jersey is a little bit different. Dante is working hard. We’ll figure that out once we get to the back end of the week.”
Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has tapped into something special with his two veteran safeties, New Jersey natives Logan Ryan and Jabrill Peppers. He was asked how the two mesh helps disguise things on the back end with what he wants to do pre to post snap.
“You have to ask them, but to me, they seem like they really like being around each other,” said Graham. “You would have to ask Pep himself, but if I’m a young DB in this league, you’re dealing with Logan, who has been in this league and has a lot of experience and been successful. It’s a wealth of knowledge you can get from him. You see that and that helps, that definitely helps. In terms of being on the field, the more interchangeable they are, the more you can disguise it.
“For me, as they’re growing with one another and understanding, okay, I can do your job, you can do my job. Now you start to play that game within the game, that’s always a good thing. You don’t want to put someone is harm’s way because what I can do and what you can do is different. If I’m the post safety, then I’m going to play the post safety spot. I like the fact that they will work with one another and be as interchangeable as possible as we keep growing this thing as we work through the season.”
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