We've already taken a look at the winners of training camp so far, at least eight of them. And while winning is everything, sometimes it's just way more fun to take a closer look at the losers and see who is already giving us a headache before the first preseason game. Everyone's a critic.
Nobody's getting cut just because they struggled in training camp. But now that the team is back from West Virginia and the preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings is coming up crazy quick, head coach John Harbaugh and Co. are about to start making some hard decisions on the 53-man roster.
Training camp is not over, but their portion in The Mountain State very much is. The honeymoon phase is officially over, if that's what you want to call 10 practices in 11 days, and while the Giants left White Sulphur Springs relatively unscathed in the health department, a few guys definitely didn't escape the "I had a rough couple of weeks" department.
To put it simply, these five guys are heading into the preseason with a whole lot to prove.
5 Giants who couldn’t have asked for a much worse training camp so far
Jaxson Dart
The plan was for Jaxson Dart to take a big Year 2 leap, but training camp proved to be the ultimate equalizer. He spent most of the sessions looking visibly frustrated while trying to process the nuances of offensive coordinator Matt Nagy’s new-look offense.
His timing was off -- he was holding onto the ball too long, which resulted in tipped passes and a handful of ugly turnovers during team drills. His frustration even boiled over after a touchdown rep, leading him to fire the football directly at Greg Newsome’s head and earn himself a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from Harbaugh.
It's not all bad for the former Ole Miss superstar. He had some good days with the bad, but the 23-year-old was almost always going to land on this list unless he lit up training camp. It's always tough for a young QB to learn a new offensive system, but it would have been so much more preferable had he hit the ground running.
Evan Neal
If you were hoping a new coaching staff and a fresh summer would magically salvage the former seventh-overall pick, consider camp the ultimate bucket of ice water.
Outside of a few decent reps, Neal spent nearly the entire week buried on the third-team offense. When a guy with his draft pedigree can’t even siphon reps away from second-stringers under a coach who explicitly preaches size in the trenches, it tells you exactly where he stands.
Training camp might not ultimately be the end of most players' careers, but it certainly feels like this is the beginning of the end for the 25-year-old, at least in Giants blue.
Paulson Adebo... and Joe Schoen by proxy
Nobody was a bigger loser this summer than Paulson Adebo, which means general manager Joe Schoen is losing right along with him. Schoen made a splash signing last offseason by giving the 27-year-old a three-year, $54 million deal, assuming he’d come in and become the team's CB1.
Instead, Adebo looked nothing like the $18 million player they were hoping for and just spent camp watching his first-team reps get eaten alive by Deonte Banks. Struggling in camp happens to the best of us, but losing your grip on the top corner slot to a guy who couldn't buy a snap if he wanted to the last three seasons -- and just had his fifth-year option declined -- couldn't be a bigger warning sign.
To make matters worse, one-year flyer Greg Newsome has also already seemingly leapfrogged him, leaving an $18 million-per-season corner essentially fighting rookie Colton Hood just to stay on the second team. Not exactly great.
Ben Sauls
Oh, Ben. Not Ben. Anyone but Ben. I'm getting flashbacks of Uncle Ben in Spider-Man, and much like Tobey Maguire, there isn't much I can do to save him. The kicking battle is a brutal, zero-sum game, and Sauls unfortunately ran directly into a 22-year-old buzzsaw.
He didn't even have a bad week -- he actually made 35 out of 44 tries, including a 48-yard situational "game-winner" in practice -- but fine doesn't cut it when the undrafted rookie out of Michigan next to him is putting on an absolute clinic. Dominic Zvada clearly has the bigger leg and a much higher ceiling, leaving Better Call Sauls to watch his roster chances slip away with every field goal his competitor blasts through the uprights and into the stratosphere.
Theo Johnson
If we're operating in the trust tree, Theo Johnson was already playing from behind before training camp even began. The minute Big Blue brought in Isaiah Likely, it felt like Johnson’s thunder was officially stolen.
And while the former Penn State standout still has a massive ceiling, the simple truth is that the drop issues from the first two years of his career haven't gone away over the last two weeks. While Likely seemingly spent camp catching everything thrown his way, Johnson continued to struggle with drops.
It’s not a complete doomsday scenario -- the physical tools are too good to give up on -- but if you can't catch the football, that's a problem. So much for that two-headed nightmare at tight end. Johnson is still going to get plenty of run, but he'll start out operating in Likely's shadow until he proves his hands aren't a liability.
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