Odds are you’re aware of the NFL Films product of Hard Knocks, a documentary sequence that chronicles a group all through the course of coaching camp and the preseason and in the end ends proper because the common season begins.
Recently NFL Films has produced an in-season model of the present the place they comply with groups all through the course of an NFL season. That is fairly self-explanatory.
Tuesday evening noticed the debut of a brand new model of the present. This newest HK follows the New York Giants over the preliminary a part of this offseason and focuses on how the G-Men assembled their workers and group. It is all the time attention-grabbing to get these peeks behind the scenes and now we received a peek at an space that was earlier off limits.
If you’re a HK veteran like myself then in watching it plenty of issues doubtless really feel the identical to you. Part of the problem of this present is that there isn’t a breaking information of any form provided that when something large occurs it’s then given to us within the subsequent episode. There is comparatively little shock worth.
This is true for the Giants as we clearly know what they did all through all of free company and the NFL Draft; nevertheless, the debut episode was rather a lot about one thing that they didn’t do… pay working again Saquon Barkley.
New York chosen Barkley with the second general decide in 2018 and went via fairly the music and dance with him as soon as they lastly received right down to contractual negotiations. Barkley performed on the franchise tag in 2023 so the time for a critical resolution arrived this offseason and the Giants watched him stroll in free company to a division rival within the Philadelphia Eagles.
This topic is touched on all through the episode however within the closing minutes Giants GM Joe Schoen is having a dialog along with his mind belief and in the end notes that they aren’t paying their quarterback in Daniel Jones what they’re for him handy the ball off.
Tim McDonnell, Director of Player Personnel: Take this a step additional. We lose Saquon proper… what’s our identification going to be on offense now? What’s our plan? What’s the subsequent step of that, I suppose is what I’m considering. We’re dropping… our explosiveness, our touchdowns. Quarterback, if it’s Daniel, is dependent upon the run sport.
Joe Schoen, General Manager: We’ve received to improve the offensive line and also you’re paying the man $40M. It’s to not hand the ball off to a $12M again. My plan is deal with the offensive line in some unspecified time in the future right here in free company. We’re sitting at 6, there’s an opportunity there’s an offensive weapon there. This is the 12 months for Daniel. The plan all alongside was give him a few years. Is he our man for the subsequent 10 years or do we have to pivot and discover any person else?”
To be clear this dialog was had earlier than the Giants in the end noticed Saquon go away, keep in mind that NFL Films is taking pictures these occasions in actual time.
The advantage of hindsight tells us that the Giants did precisely what Schoen stated in that they signed a number of offensive linemen in free company (headlined by Jon Runyan) and took LSU large receiver Malik Nabers at quantity 6 general within the 2024 NFL Draft.
As somebody who roots for and covers the Dallas Cowboys I’ve taken a large amount of pleasure in laughing on the Giants and their decision-making for the final 15 or so years, but when we’re truthful about all of this then they did completely nothing flawed.
I’ll acknowledge that the Giants don’t precisely get pleasure from the doubt and that Daniel Jones is just not precisely somebody I might strongly imagine in personally, however that is nonetheless the NFL and constructing across the quarterback is essentially the most logical manner ahead. In reality the Giants failed miserably at attempting to construct round Saquon Barkley for all of his Giants profession.
People will snicker and roll their eyes at what the Giants did particularly as a result of Howie Roseman is the Eagles’ common supervisor and is considered being superb at his job, so it seems to be just like the Giants made an enormous mistake that the Eagles capitalized on. Again, advantage of the doubt sort stuff.
But the Giants lastly made the exhausting resolution that they prevented for thus lengthy. Good for them I suppose.
