Bill Barnwell: Giants had one of league’s best offseasons
As the NFL moves full steam ahead towards training camp, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell has decided to take a moment to look back. He recently examined the offseason results for each team and determined that the New York Giants were among the league’s best roster builders.
As far as a specific ranking, Barnwell had the Giants at sixth-best overall.
Following the path the Bills took to calm down Josh Allen in Buffalo, Schoen brought in multiple players to try to replenish the offensive line, signing Mark Glowinski, Jon Feliciano and Max Garcia. Ricky Seals-Jones and Jordan Akins were brought in to rebuild the tight end room. Tyrod Taylor, another former Bills player, was signed to back up Jones. New York opted for quantity, and while that’s not a guarantee of success, its additions all came on reasonable deals.
Most importantly, after years of ignoring positional scarcity, the Giants focused on critical positions in the draft. Blessed with an extra first-round pick from the organization’s first trade down in a generation, the Giants used the No. 5 overall pick on edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and the No. 7 selection on offensive tackle Evan Neal. Schoen traded down twice in the second round and landed wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson. Smart teams use their premium picks to address the most valuable positions, and after years of using first-rounders to hit running back and nose tackle, the Giants seem to be more aware of positional scarcity.
That was the good news in the eyes of Barnwell, but that’s not to say general manager Joe Schoen & Co. completely hit it out of the park. There were some obvious mistakes and flubs, and decisions worthy of criticism.
One such decision was the release of veteran cornerback James Bradberry and everything that preceded it. Another eyebrow-raising decision was selecting Wan’Dale Robinson in Round 2, which was both praised and criticized by Barnwell.
I’m surprised they weren’t able to find a creative solution and pay some of [Bradberry’s] deal in 2022 to get a trade done, but I also recognize the cap mess was a problem the current regime inherited from the prior one. Remember that the Giants were forced to restructure some deals at the end of 2021 just to stay cap-compliant during the season.
Robinson plays a critical position, but it was curious to see them add a player who was regarded as a midround selection and referred to as more of a gadget weapon when they already have one of those on the roster in Kadarius Toney. There were rumors they might be interested in trading Toney or Saquon Barkley, which would make life harder for Jones in a make-or-break season.
So, what could the Giants have done to maximize their offseason further? In Barnwell’s mind, they could have signed a better backup quarterback than Tyrod Taylor to compete with Daniel Jones.
It’s fair to wonder whether Schoen should have brought in more competition at quarterback, given that Taylor has been either injured or ineffective for most of his post-Bills career. The Giants didn’t sign Bills backup Mitch Trubisky, who inked what is really a one-year, $6.3 million deal with the Steelers. Marcus Mariota was available when the Giants signed Taylor. Jones hasn’t been good as a pro, and while they haven’t had a great offensive line for his run, his numbers when unpressured have dropped across each of his first three seasons. New York hasn’t committed to Jones in 2023, but you can make a reasonable case it shouldn’t be locked into him as the starter in 2022, either.
Taylor has been a hard luck quarterback. He’s caught some of the worst breaks a player ever could but continues to grind away. And when he is called upon, he’s a quality asset and, at least in the opinion of those here at Giants Wire, a better option that Trubisky.
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Giants greats impressed with team's 2022 NFL draft results
