Giants Head to 1JD

Edition #682

Good morning! ☕

I forced myself to re-watch the Carolina game last night with the expectation that I’d find something to talk about today. Unfortunately, the players we highlighted on Monday and Brandon Codrington were largely the only things to take from that game.

Sure there were some players who maybe helped their case, Barnes, Max Mitchell and Xavier Newman again. But really, this was a game that nobody should watch a second time, and so we’ll swiftly move on.

The Giants are heading to 1JD tomorrow to finalise the joint practice schedule before the two teams finish off their pre-season slate against each other at the weekend. It still remains to be seen whether the Jets play any of their starters or not.

Aaron Rodgers doesn't know if he's playing Saturday and he has no preference either way - "Whether or not we play Saturday, who knows? If Saleh wants us to, then we will. I don't know what he told u guys, but we haven't been told anything yet."

Rodgers also said that this has been one of the toughest camps he's been in for a good 7-8 years in relation to the # of reps that the starters are getting. He credits Saleh for that and believes it's been beneficial to everyone.

PFF offered up their week two pre-season rookie grades and here’s what they had to say about Olu Fashanu: “Fashanu got all of his preseason Week 1 action at left tackle. In his second game as a Jet, all of his reps came on the right side as New York prepares him for a backup role this season. He struggled mightily in the run game at his new position. He earned six negative grades on just 13 run-blocking reps. On the bright side, he was still decent in pass protection, as he earned a 66.3 pass-blocking grade. Fashanu’s adjustment to NFL-level play strength will be worth watching moving forward.”

Xavier Gipson missed some time earlier this camp and he’s working to catch up: "It was a difficult time to have that injury during the learning stage of camp," Gipson said of his hamstring issue. "I am trying to earn a spot, I always feel that way every day, and I missed a lot of reps. Now I am trying to get back in the groove and get going."

Robert Saleh wants Gipson to use his speed more this year, now that he’s into year two in the system: "Gippy, X, Xavier, Zay, whatever you want to call him, the big thing for him is we want him to use his speed," HC Robert Saleh said. "As a rookie, sometimes you think so much that you forget to use your superpower, which for him is speed. I think he's been demonstrating that, play in and play out this year."

Not much to really highlight here with the majority of the first team either getting the day off or having a light practice after yesterday’s long session. Aaron Rodgers was not on the field for the team drills as he got a veteran rest day ahead of the Giants joint practice tomorrow. Same for some of the key defensive guys like C.J. Mosley.

The Jets really worked on 2nd team offence and defence yesterday, but one standout was Malachi Corley who got a lot of work with Tyrod Taylor and reportedly made the most of it. I’d like to see more Corley in the pre-season in terms of targets, and I’m hoping he gets plenty of action against the Giants.

More and more teams are using these joint sessions to fine-tune the first team ahead of the regular season and if the Jets decide to not play their starters this weekend, this will be the final time we see the 1’s in a semi-competitive environment before opening day. That’s both incredibly exciting and extremely worrying at the same time.

The Jets dominated the home session against the Washington Commanders, a team they should dominate. They then had an uneven session with the Panthers, who offensively are quite limited, but who possess some real talent on the defensive side of the ball.

What kind of football team we see in the blue half of New York this year is a bit of a mystery. The Giants surprised a lot of people as they finished 9-7-1 in Brian Daboll’s first season in charge back in 2022, they even won a playoff game before being eliminated by the Eagles. Last year they took a step back, finishing with a 6-11 record and on the outside of the playoff picture.

They scored just 266 points last year which ranked 30th in the league and their total yardage ranked 29th. Their 15 passing touchdowns were 28th, their 10 rushing touchdowns were 23rd, which all equalled 15.6 points per game…meaning they had one of the worst offenses in football (30th).

To rectify that they brought in veteran QB Drew Lock and RB Devin Singletary, and ploughed some of their revenue into fixing the offensive line by signing guards Jon Runyan, Jermaine Eluemunor and I’d also put TE Chris Manhertz in there as well considering he’s largely renowned for his run-blocking. They also brought in Isaiah McKenzie from Indianapolis.

So far, that doesn’t appear to push the needle. But then came the draft and Malik Nabers, who the Jets were very interested in. Nabers has been receiving rave reviews through camp and he’s been dominating throughout, but he’s not come up against the likes of Sauce Gardner and DJ Reed. So this week is going to be a huge test for him, but also a huge opportunity. I’ve seen some clips of Nabers and he looks outstanding, but I’m reluctant to label anyone as a “budding star” before they get tested. The real tests come when the lights shine brightest during the season, but I’m sure Nabers is looking forward to testing himself against some of the games best.

Penn State TE Theo Johnson was a nice pickup in the 4th round, especially when you consider Darren Waller decided to retire.

The issue for the Giants is Daniel Jones who is wildly inconsistent and coming off a torn ACL, oh and Barkley has left for Philadelphia so he no longer has his safety valve. I don’t like Daniel Jones as a franchise QB and I think his limitations will handicap this offence and I would expect the Jets to give him a good test today.

Andrew Thomas is still with the Giants and he remains one of the best, so with Reddick still nowhere to be seen, the likes of Will McDonald will get valuable reps against the outstanding left tackle.

One of the toughest tests for the Jets will be facing the dynamic pass-rush duo of Kayvon Thibodeaux and new man Brian Burns. That is an elite 1-2 punch to bring to the table and if the Jets play their starting offensive line, it’ll give us a good measure of where they are. The first unit has been moving people off the ball in the run game, but recently we’ve heard that the Jets defence is getting a fair amount of success rushing the QB. Then when you have Lawrence inside at DT, it’ll test both the interior pass protection and the run game. The Giants defensive line against the Jets offensive line is going to be the marquee matchup of the joint practice.

The Giants lost Xavier McKinney at safety and replaced him with second round pick Tyler Nubin and the Jets may look to exploit that safety matchup, with Nubin playing next to former Jet Jason Pinnock. The truth is if the Jets offensive line holds up, then Aaron Rodgers and the Jets receivers should be able to pick apart the secondary that is likely to field Deonte Banks and Cor’Dale Flott as their starters, yikes!