Welcome to Giants 101, as in the team’s one hundred and first season.
After a miserable 2024 campaign, the heavily revamped roster with significant changes — and potential upgrades — reports for training camp on Tuesday with the first practice on Wednesday morning in East Rutherford. Here are five questions the Giants will look to answer in the coming weeks:
1. When will Jaxson Dart be ready?
It’s hard to envision a scenario, barring injury, in which Russell Wilson does not emerge from training camp as the starting quarterback for the Giants. The team bestowed that title upon him from the moment he agreed to sign back in March, and he has spent every moment since playing that role, from guiding the players through OTAs and minicamp to organizing offseason workouts in Atlanta and San Diego. In an ideal Giants world, Wilson will keep his post throughout this season, too.
There are two ingredients needed for that long-term plan to fall into place: Wilson must return to the Pro Bowl-level of play he hasn’t produced in several years, and the Giants need to win enough games to continue to be in contention for a playoff spot.
Assuming one or both of those fail to occur, at some point this season the Giants figure to hand the team over to rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart. When will that happen? These next few weeks will go a long way in determining the timeline for what will be the first big on-field decision of the Giants’ second century of football.
Training camp will be the initial opportunity to see Dart in real NFL competition during practices and preseason games and get a better gauge on his readiness to take over.
If the Giants come out of camp believing Dart is ready to play, their tolerance for Wilson will be short. Even Eli Manning only got a two-week leash the last time the Giants were itching to play a first-round pick at the position so if things go very south very quickly this time, Wilson may not make it to the home opener in Week 3. However, if the Giants sense Dart can use more time to prepare, they may have to stick with Wilson — or even turn to Jameis Winston — for longer than they logically should.
Ultimately, Wilson’s fate with the Giants will be determined by Wilson’s production, not Dart’s potential. But if Dart can show his readiness over the next month and a half, then the Giants will have the freedom of going into this season knowing they can turn to him at the first genuine opportunity ... and get moving on a future that already seems to be outshining the present.
2. How healthy will the stars be?
Many of the key players the Giants are sure to be counting on this season were absent or rarely seen on the field in the spring workouts. Dexter Lawrence II, Malik Nabers, Andrew Thomas and Bobby Okereke were all held out of the actual action in order to get a little more recovery time in for their assorted injuries and, in some cases, surgeries, coming off last year. We don’t even know yet if any of them will start camp on the PUP list, never mind be able to perform fully during these first few workouts.
That’s fine. Precaution is a smart tack in the calm waters of OTAs and minicamps and can be good even in late July. But, tick tock, the regular season is just over six weeks away and navigating that limited time so everyone the Giants are relying on can be on the field in Washington on Sept. 7 is going to become a critical early gauntlet to this season.
3. Who is poised for a breakout year?
There are a few young players who showed glimpses of potential last season and if they can build on that momentum they may evolve into significant contributors for this year’s team. Among the early candidates poised to see a big bump in their roles are tight end Theo Johnson, safety Tyler Nubin and punt returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette. Other solid players who could reach new heights include wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson and running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. And then there is Jalin Hyatt, the third-year receiver who has yet to tap into the skill set that first attracted the Giants to him as a draft pick. He had a very strong spring and could be one of the biggest personal beneficiaries of the team’s overhaul of the quarterback room.
4. Is Abdul Carter the real deal?
It’s been several decades since the Giants had a rookie defensive player arrive with the kind of hype Abdul Carter, the third overall pick, has brought with him to New York. The best (and most impossibly unfair) comparison is Lawrence Taylor, and Carter did himself no favors by suggesting early on that he’d like the team to unretire 56 for him to wear. Carter eventually settled on donning the 51 jersey and now embarks on making it as iconic a number as the one he requested. If he can meet just some of the lofty expectations put upon him starting in this training camp he’ll be a great asset to the Giants. If he can meet most of them, he could become a Giants great.
5. Can Deonte Banks keep a starting job?
The former first-round pick has had a bumpy two seasons with the Giants and failed to develop into the No. 1 cornerback they envisioned. This offseason the team signed veteran Paulson Adebo to fill that role, bumping Banks to the No. 2 spot, but there is no guarantee he can keep it. The Giants will need to see improvement in his effort and technique to keep him among their starting 11 with Cor’Dale Flott a potential challenger for the job.
Other camp position battles to keep an eye on will include depth at tight end among Daniel Bellinger, Chris Manhertz, Greg Dulcich (a Wilson favorite) and rookie Thomas Fidone (who drew praise from Travis Kelce at this summer’s Tight End University); interior offensive line, where Evan Neal will try to reinvent himself as a guard after flopping as a tackle; inside linebacker, where Micah McFadden could be the odd man out if Carter winds up playing more off-the-ball than edge; running back, with Tracy, Devin Singletary and rookie Cam Skattebo jostling for touches; and even kicker, with Graham Gano coming back from injuries and some inconsistency at the age of 38.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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