The New York Giants might still be riding the high of beating the you-know-what out of the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, but that doesn’t mean they feel like their 53-man roster is set to take on the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2.
Consider this the advantage of having John Harbaugh as the team’s head coach. He’s going to do whatever it takes and make whatever adjustments he needs to get the best possible configuration of 53 players for each week.
Ahead of their Week 1 primetime clash, the G-Men promoted wide receiver/special teams ace Dalen Cambre from the practice squad. The move made a lot of sense, seeing as Malik Nabers was quite literally a game-time decision, and the WR room took a hit following Darius Slayton’s release.
That’s why it comes as no surprise that Harbaugh got to tinkering and sent Cambre back down to the practice squad and elevated defensive lineman Josh Tupou to add a little more beef in the middle of the defensive line.
Giants aren’t taking any chances with the Rams’ rushing attack
The Rams lead the league in Duo rate, an offensive concept built around creating multiple double teams at the line of scrimmage. It just so happens that Tupou is much better at eating double teams than Cambre.
New York signed the 6-foot-3, 350-pounder earlier in the offseason because the defensive line room looked like a grocery store before a major storm: barren. Rakeem Nuñez-Roches was sipping Piña Coladas in Tampa Bay. Dexter Lawrence demanded a trade and was subsequently sent to Southwest Ohio. And Roy Robertson-Harris’ season ended before it could even begin with a torn Achilles.
It didn’t hurt Tupou’s chances that he had most recently spent the last two years with none other than John Harbaugh in Baltimore. He appeared in six games while spending most of his time on the P-Squad. Rinse, repeat.
If Big Blue has any chance of stopping a frustrated Rams team coming off a season-opening loss to the 49ers in Australia, they’re going to need to stop the Horns’ daunting rushing attack.
Kyren Williams and Blake Corum are tough dudes to take down, so eating double teams at the line and freeing up Tremaine Edmunds and Arvell Reese to go make the play is a lot better than letting those backs get to the second level untouched and turning it into a one-on-one, let’s-see-which-defensive-back-can-tackle-them kind of situation.
Tupou’s promotion will likely come at the expense of one of the younger DTs on the roster. What that means exactly, and who draws the short straw, will probably be answered Monday night.
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