5 Giants questions to answer with OTAs in the books
Giants running back Saquon Barkley speaks on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Corey Sipkin
For the Giants, the next stop is training camp. In late July.
But as the NFL calendar has closed the book on this chapter of OTAs, there are giant — and Giants — questions to answer.
Let’s get to it.
What happens with Saquon Barkley?
The $10.1 million franchise tag (and Barkley’s refusal to sign it) has been a drag this spring.
This has been and remains the most consequential question facing the 2023 Giants.
Will Barkley and the Giants come to an agreement? They have to. It’s the only answer that makes sense.
Barkley accounted for 29% of the Giants' offense in 2022. He was the fourth-leading rusher in the league.
The other running backs on the roster this spring: Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell, Jashaun Corbin, rookie Eric Gray. (Yes, Barkley was included on the roster disseminated by the team.)
The deadline to sign the franchise tag is July 17.
The guess here on negotiations: There may need to be some different voices at the table to jump-start the progress.
It will be interesting to see if, say, assistant general manager Brandon Brown assumes a bigger role in talks, perhaps as a fresh voice who finds compromise. And if Barkley’s camp also undergoes some change.
A significant question: Does John Mara get more involved?
When he spoke with reporters Tuesday, Brown said: “I think the biggest thing is being patient, being open to listen and understanding what the market is. [You have to be able] to agree to disagree at times and be able to get back to the table. Things don’t just happen overnight.”
“Overnight” came and went a long time ago.
Barkley, at his youth football camp last Sunday in Jersey City, said there is still time. True. It also is true, in this case, that the player and the team are better together. Much better.
What’s next for Kayvon?
We learned something about Kayvon Thibodeaux this spring.
As he reviewed his rookie season, he told reporters: “I didn’t watch the good plays. The good plays are kind of dead and gone now. I was trying to find out how I can eliminate as many bad plays as possible.”
Said outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins: “He is so self-motivated. We’re striving to get those numbers higher, really for the whole room.”
There could be, and probably should be, more splash plays by the Giants' defense in 2023. Thibodeaux may be as talented as anyone on the Giants' roster. He has a big fan in Michael Strahan, who was at minicamp Tuesday.
How does Darren Waller change the offense?
There’s a reason Giants tight ends coach Andy Bischoff had this reaction to the March trade for Waller: “Cartwheels all the way.”
Bischoff has known Waller since the two were together in Baltimore. (He was a sixth-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.)
Bischoff has great conviction in Waller the player and the person.
“He took the group out for dinner the other night, his choice, his offer, his leadership,” Bischoff said. “It wasn’t a night of New York clubs, it was a night of New York fellowship with his teammates. So that’s the kind of guy he is. And his experiences certainly have shaped that.” (Waller talks openly about his sobriety.)
On the field, Waller stood out routinely this spring.
“He’s a unicorn,” second-year tight end Daniel Bellinger said. “He’s good for the whole group in so many ways.”
Did the Giants quench their need for speed?
It appears so. Thanks to free agency and the draft, the roster features numerous offensive weapons who can move.
“This is definitely the fastest total complete group that I’ve played with in my career,” said receiver Parris Campbell, who signed with the Giants in free agency and formerly was with the Colts. “I mean, we’ve got speed across the board. It’s speed that can do a lot of different things. It’s not just guys running in a straight line fast, it’s-ball-in-the-hands fast. In-their-routes fast. We complement each other. I’m excited for what’s to come.”
What about Wink?
Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale loves that rookie cornerback Deonte Banks played a lot of man defense at Maryland, and he’s thrilled with the addition in free agency of middle linebacker Bobby Okereke.
Not long ago, Blake Martinez was the Giants' middle linebacker, but Martindale believes if you have a slow middle linebacker, you have a slow defense. So Martinez was jettisoned, paving the way for Okereke to be signed a year later in free agency.
Martindale said “it’s fun” to watch Okereke play. “He’s a really intelligent kid that knows football, and it’s not hard to talk football with him,'' he said. "We’ve just got to get ready to take the next step. Which for me is vacation.”
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.
