Devonta Freeman ready to breathe life back into Giants’ run game
Running back Devonta Freeman has only been in East Rutherford for a few short weeks, but he’s acclimated himself quite nicely and is no longer considered a newcomer. In fact, New York Giants head coach Joe Judge expects to use Freeman liberally moving forward.
“I don’t see him as a new guy at all. He’s definitely deep in our building right now, he’s deep in our program. We’ve got a lot of packages for him put together,” Judge told reporters on Friday. “As far as getting caught up on our playbook, I think he accomplished that a couple weeks ago. Obviously, that first weekend here, it’s really getting on the terminology and verbiage, make sure he’s speaking the same language. I don’t see any issues with that going forward. I’m excited to have him on the team.”
Freeman gained just 10 yards in his Giants debut in Week 3, but upped that total to 68 yards from scrimmage against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4.
Although he wouldn’t admit it outright, Freeman has to be licking his chops as he prepares to take on a Dallas Cowboys team that surrendered 307 rushing yards last week against the Cleveland Browns.
“It’s the NFL, everybody is good in the NFL. These guys are getting paid a lot of money just like every other defense,” Freeman said. “We’re just going to do our job. Focus on us, focus on what we can do. Of course, we have to worry about our opponent. The main thing is just come in and get our ball right, get our ball together. Just try to get better, thrive off each other, feed off each other. Give each other that good energy. The sky is the limit for us.”
The sky seemed like a long way off for this Giants offense in the not too distant past, but Freeman, like many of his teammates, feels like they’re beginning to hit a stride.
“With the run game, you need all 11 guys. I feel like we are starting to click. Everybody is starting to do their job. To have a successful run game it’s going to take all 11,” Freeman added. “Once we play unified, the sky is the limit for us. We can just continue to get comfortable with different looks, different schemes. There hasn’t been a preseason, you can expect a lot of things to be slower and take time. It’s a process. I definitely think you just need all 11 guys. That’s what we went out there and did last game. We’re going to build off that and just keep going and try to get better. All of us have been working hard all week long. Just try to get better every day.”
Ultimately, Freeman says, his job is simply to maximize his value when his number gets called. And that should come much easier now that he’s familiarized himself with the Giants’ offensive system.
“I’m a lot more comfortable. Football is football. Me catching up to the proper language here and just continuing to learn and elevate. Continue to take my game to the next level,” Freeman said. “I’m a lot more comfortable and it’s going to be a week by week thing. (We’re) game planning so different teams, different schemes and stuff like that. Taking it week by week, day by day, and continue to learn every week, every day.”
Expect to see a heavy dose of Freeman on Sunday against the Cowboys.
