Why NFL officially cancelling preseason is horrible for NY Giants

Joe Judge, Jason Garrett, and Patrick Graham going to have to get creative for NY Giants

I’ve said it before, but it’s hard to remember a first-year head coach stepping into a tougher situation due to so many negative things happening before the team even started practicing, and now we can add the inability to implement new systems and evaluate his players in real game action to the list.

Luckily for NY Giants fans, Joe Judge has appeared to be a coach that can adapt on the fly and has a tough resolve at all turns so far, but this will test the rookie coach in ways that aren’t very fair.

In addition to the canceling of all preseason games, the NY Giants will be forced to only carry 80 players instead of 90 which also severely hampers the coaching staff’s ability to build out the back end of the roster and uncover diamonds in the rough — you know, things that can lead a franchise back to winning.

New offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, is really going to have his hands full in getting this offense to be on point heading into a potential Week 1 game, as training camp and real game action are two different animals.

To compare it to boxing or combat sports in general, there have always been plenty of athletes that have been said to be monsters in the training gym only to shrink under the bright lights in real action.

It’s going to be near impossible for Joe Judge, Jason Garrett, and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to be able to tell the difference between those types of guys without being able to see them play in a real game against another team that’s trying to beat them.

Imagine if the preseason was canceled for some reason in 2010, or even just the roster numbers limited; there’s a good chance we never get to enjoy the greatness that was Victor Cruz in a NY Giants jersey that greatly helped the team win the 2011 Super Bowl — and that’s just one example.

There’s no telling now who, or how many, diamonds in the rough the NY Giants will now miss out on, as players like the ‘undrafted big three’ of wideouts – Binjimen Victor, Austin Mack, and Derrick Dillon – will only get to show off their skills on a controlled practice field.

For a franchise badly needing solid players on rookie contracts at important positions, this hits the NY Giants extra hard.

Joe Judge, Jason Garrett, and Patrick Graham are going to really have to work hard to earn their money and respect this season as they’ll almost be in effect flying blind into the 2020 season.

The NY Giants can “thank” the veteran players around the league who in essence voted to look out for themselves and the NFL home office in general, which only finally conveniently made this no preseason games offer after it was firmly established there would be no fans (aka ticket sales).