'Comfortable in the chaos': How NY Giants are preparing for the frenzy of NFL cut day

EAST RUTHERFORD - Brandon Brown promises the New York Giants will be meticulous in their preparation when it comes to the frenzy that will unfold next Tuesday when more than 1,000 players officially hit the waiver wire.

The team building under general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll has not only been about the product on the field, but behind the scenes in the front office and the player acquisition process.

To truly appreciate what Schoen has done to remake the Giants, you have to consider the singular mindset by which they are operating.

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In his second year as assistant GM, Brown said Monday: "We all don't have to agree. But we're all on the same page. There’s no curveballs or surprises on our end."

The evaluation is not just of the Giants' roster, which tends to be challenging enough. There is a framework Schoen established since his arrival in putting together his personnel and scouting departments.

"We're comfortable in the chaos," Brown told NorthJersey.com. "When there's scrambling in the league, when there are a lot of moving parts, the team Joe has built and how we operate, we feel like we can gain an advantage."

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Chris Rossetti is the director of pro scouting, so he runs point on everything.

The pro scouts (Marquis Pendleton, Jeremiah Davis, Nick LaTesta and Corey Lockett) have been assigned respective teams to scout, study and analyze this summer.

Tim McDonnell, the Giants' director of player personnel, and Brown oversee the AFC and NFC, respectively.

All parties involved then funnel players of interest to Schoen, who has assistant director of player personnel Dennis Hickey and Ryan Cowden, executive advisor to the GM, also canvassing the landscape within the league.

"If there's guys that are playing well out there, there's nothing that's going to be a surprise to us whether it’s a guy that’s at the cutdown, whether it’s a guy who's traded in the next two weeks," Brown said. "We will be doing our due diligence throughout the process."

Schoen's background as a scout sets the standard for the Giants. The pro scouts are well aware that, if they push a player worth considering up the personnel chain, Schoen is going to study that player, too. So the analysis has to be buttoned up, especially in a time like this when critical decisions must be made in a matter of hours.

"Obviously, we've elevated the talent overall of the team, but we're going to canvass everything," Brown said. "At the end of the day, when you look at it, it’s going to be acquire, develop, retain. That's what we want to do. It's acquiring the best talent, developing the best talent and retaining the best talent."

The Giants claimed four players off the waiver wire following final cuts last summer: guard Jack Anderson, cornerback Justin Layne, cornerback Nick McCloud and safety Jason Pinnock.

Only Layne did not last the season, and the other three remain with the Giants in differing roles.

Pinnock, who was waived by the Jets, has emerged as the leading candidate to start at safety next to Xavier McKinney. McCloud was a versatile contributor on defense in the secondary and he's one of the team's best special teams players. Anderson is a reserve lineman who can also play center in a pinch.

Historical data has revealed that defensive players have a higher hit rate as waiver claims and sticking on the 53 than offensive players, Brown said.

Of course, the Giants' success last season - nine wins, plus a playoff victory in Daboll's first year - knocks them down in the pecking order when it comes to waiver claims this time around. They also have a better roster, but not without specific needs for upgrades if the opportunities present themselves. That could lead Schoen and team brass to consider a trade or two of players they'd like to claim, but feel as though they won't have the chance.

"We're going to do our due diligence," Brown said. "There's going to be guys that are claimed that we will have maybe four, five, six reports in on, but [that player] might not get to us in the claim order. So, we're going to look at what the sweet spots are, where there’s surplus in the market, and see if there's opportunity to help us."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Giants' promise to be 'comfortable in the chaos' of NFL cut day