Giants look much faster, particularly at wide receiver

When you watch the 2023 New York Giants on the practice field, they look different. 

As in faster. Certainly faster. 

It’s clear that in the final evaluation of last year’s we-won-a-playoff-game season, Giants general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll came to this realization: The 2023 Giants had a need for speed. 

To be fair, Schoen and Daboll surely recognized that deficiency long before the 2022 season ended. Maybe before it began. 

And over the months leading into the 2023 season, they’ve addressed it. That became obvious during the media availabilities this spring when the media were allowed to watch full OTA sessions. 

Part of it is apparent in the defensive additions. Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale likes fast linebackers, so enter via free agency Bobby Okereke from the Colts. In the draft, the Giants tabbed cornerback Deonte Banks of Maryland with their first-round draft pick. He ran a 4.35 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, one of the fastest times, and fits Martindale’s press-man scheme. Veteran safety Bobby McCain signed with the Giants in free agency. He’s a former cornerback converted to safety, and the Giants will find ways to use his versatility. 

But the biggest difference in these Giants appears to be on offense, particularly at wide receiver. 

“Top to bottom, we’re much faster this year,” Giants wide receivers coach Mike Groh said recently.  

The receiver position is likely to be not only highly competitive but considerably improved. 

Just ask receiver Parris Campbell, who signed in free agency from the Colts. He said this is the “fastest receivers’ group” he’s ever been part of. Considering Campbell ran a 4.31 40 at the 2019 combine, he knows fast when he sees it. 

Training camp battles should be compelling. Good receivers, players who could make another team’s roster, likely will be cut. 

This season should represent a far cry from 2022, when the Giants won a playoff game with primary receivers Darius Slayton, Richie James and Isaiah Hodgins (claimed off waivers from the Bills in November). That’s not a knock on those receivers, but the overall situation was not ideal. 

As it stands now, the number of wide receivers entering training camp will be the same as last year’s initial total of 14, according to Groh, who is in his second season as Giants wide receivers coach and has been coaching at the pro and college levels for 23 years. 

Groh said Daboll likes to have an extra receiver, adding: “I do think it makes sense, with all the emphasis on passing, just to save a few steps, if you will, and keep everybody healthy during camp. Inevitably [there will be injuries], but when that happens, there’s enough bodies to take up the slack.” 

One of the most intriguing receivers in the room when training camp begins will be rookie Jalin Hyatt. He won college football’s Biletnikoff Award as the sport’s best receiver last season. Curiously, he was still there for the Giants to draft him in the third round.  

Groh described his interactions with Hyatt as “positive, I’ve had a chance to be around him on multiple occasions in different settings. Very positive. He’s a super young man.” 

The concerns about Hyatt may have centered on his being more comfortable with only a limited number of routes. NFL teams have more diverse route trees than the college game does. 

Groh said the Giants had no reservations: “I think if we had major concerns, maybe, he wouldn’t be here. Very pleased with what he’s shown us on the field so far. We didn’t have a lot of concern in making the pick. We had a lot of confidence in the player he could be.” 

The 6-foot Hyatt, who ran a 4.40 40, certainly could stretch the field. Groh also knows there could be growing pains. 

“It’s a big step up in terms of what they’re asked to learn and understand,” Groh said of rookie receivers. “They’re all learning new techniques. And really, every receiver in college football, none of them run the same route tree that they’re going to run in the NFL. Then it’s our job to find the things that the players do well.”  

Hyatt will be a particularly intriguing player to watch at Giants training camp, which begins July 26. 

He does not seem to lack confidence.

Hyatt said this spring that he looks forward to “putting in the work, believing in myself, having confidence on the field, and not only that, but showing out when it’s time for you to show out. I really believe that whenever your opportunity is, you've got to make the most of it, and I think I did that last season and can't wait to do it this season when my opportunity comes up."

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.