Welcome to the weekly New York Giants On SI mailbag! From offseason moves to game-day strategies, we’ll do our best to answer your questions. (Some questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Mike, I asked Nabers about that in a round about way. Here was his response: “I had a talk with (Quarterbacks) Coach (Brian) Callahan, and we had a good talk and he said some things in our conversation. He was just like, ‘Just play the one play that we call, don’t try to do too much.’ Don’t try to do a lot on the play, we just need you to be you. So just be you at the end of the day.
“And like I said, just not pressing. I’m getting a lot of different coverages on my side. I’m getting a lot of cloud, getting a lot of double teams. So, every opportunity I have to get the football I think I’m just trying to do too much with the football instead of just let the game come to me and just play the game. So, I think just like Coach Calli said, just playing that one play, just locking on that one play and then focus on the next play when it comes.”
Moose, my gut says they don’t re-sign Thibodeaux. He’s going to want a top-dollar deal, and I think someone will give it to him.
I could see a world where Arvell Reese gets more snaps on the outside, and you also have to remember that Thibs has been playing in his natural spot ever since Brian Burns’s season-ending injury. So I think Thibs moves on in free agency.
The injury to Dart may have had something to do with it — remember, they have only now run what, three games with J.J. McCarthy under center, a guy who can run the RPO game unlike Winston? But I think the bigger issue was the injuries at running back.
First, you have Tyrone Tracy Jr. on IR, and of course you had Skattebo miss a game due to injury (as well as one due to a quasi-benching). As a result, the Giants leaned a little bit more on inside zone runs.
Second, I think they’ve leaned more on a pistol formation in their running game, with the fullback serving more as a trap blocker while the o-line has focused on DUO blocking. The Giants only ran the pistol on 1.1% of their plays in Week 1.
Since then that perentage has jumped up to 3%, which might not seem like a huge jump but actually is considering how many rushing attempts they average per game.
Jim, I cover the Giants, not the Eagles so I can’t sit here and tell you how their cap is going to be impacted down to the penny.
What I can tell you is that they have a lot of draft picks next year which means they’ll have a lot of players on rookie deals — two first rounders, one second, and a projected third round comp pick are their premium picks.
The cap is also going to rise so whatever dead money they accrue as a result of voidable years won’t be as harsh in terms of the bite it takes out of their cap as it might be if it the hit were taken this year.
Kris, I was the one who mentioned Zvada’s misses this year coming from the right hash, something Harbaugh didn’t disagree with.
I brought up the question because I noticed they all came from the right hash. So to your question—I already did the groundwork on it, not that I was the only one to do so, I’m sure.
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