Giants excited to see if offseason hard work will pay off
Giants head coach Brian Daboll, right, congratulates quarterback Daniel Jones after he made an accurate throw to complete a difficult pass during Giants training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 31. Credit: James Escher
It’s game week. Say goodbye to training camp.
Giants coaches were in the offices at Quest Diagnostics Center on Sunday. The players were at the facility Monday.
The Cowboys will visit Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.
“Obviously, we’ve done a lot of work in the offseason, but this is the first real regular-season week for us,” coach Brian Daboll said Monday via Zoom. “So I think everybody’s excited and looking forward to our preparations here.”
General manager Joe Schoen said last week that he views this season as a chance to close the gap within the division. The Giants finished third in the NFC East last season and went a combined 0-5 against Dallas and Philadelphia, including the playoff loss to the Eagles.
They have a different look this season.
“As the dust settles a little bit, stepping back and looking at the roster, I think we have 39 players that are 26 years old or younger,” Schoen said.
He added that the Giants are among the NFL’s youngest teams.
Now it’s a matter of this group learning how to win together.
Last season, the Eagles won 14 games and represented the NFC in the Super Bowl. The Cowboys had 12 wins. The Giants had nine victories, the Commanders had eight and the two split a tie, which was an unappealing outcome for everyone involved.
Much has changed since then.
“I think they had a productive camp,” Daboll said of his players. “I think we’ve gotten better from where we started. But again, until you start playing in regular-season games and adversity strikes [you won’t know] how you respond.”
Adversity will strike.
Daboll said with 30% of the roster new, there will be some uncertainty early.
“Different things are going to happen, you’re playing different opponents,” he said. “You’ve really got to learn your team as you go in the regular season, and you just don’t pick up where you left off last year or [after] a preseason game.”
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.
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