The NY Giants surprisingly made the playoffs in 2023 and even won a postseason game despite having one of the weakest rosters in football. Much of the 2022 success can be attributed to NFL Coach of the Year Brian Daboll, as well as offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
Those three elite coaching minds covered up many of the Giants roster warts. The Giants had arguably the league's worst receiving core, a sub-par tight end group, a revolving door of really bad inside linebackers, a revolving door of cornerbacks playing alongside Adoree' Jackson, a shaky offensive line and no depth on the defensive line.
Joe Schoen addressed many of those problems this offseason but couldn’t address them all. Here are the four main weaknesses on the New York Giants roster:
4. Safety
Xavier McKinney is one of the NFL's best young safeties and is cemented as the starting strong safety for the 2023 season. His starting safety partner is yet to be determined, and there are not a lot of great options.
The Giants signed veteran defensive back Bobby McCain to play safety this offseason, and he seems to be the leader in the pack to start alongside McKinney. Youngster Jason Pinnock was claimed off waivers from the Jets right before the season started in 2022, and he will challenge McCain for that job.
Neither had great seasons in 2022. PFF ranked Pinnock and McCain as the 60th and 61st-best safeties in the NFL last season. Second-year player Dane Belton will factor into the mix in 2023, but he dealt with injuries in 2022, and was given the worst coverage grade among all NFL safeties by PFF for his 2022 efforts.
Rookie seventh-round pick Gervarrius Owens has impressed at OTA's, but it's never good when a seventh-round rookie is playing significant snaps. Safety will be a position to keep an eye on moving forward for the Giants.
3. Inside linebacker
The Giants showcased the worst inside linebacker play in football last season. To remedy that, Schoen signed ex-Colt Bobby Okereke to a four-year, $40 million deal this offseason. Similar to McKinney at the safety position, Okereke's starting partner is yet to be determined.
Veteran Jarrad Davis, whom the Giants signed late last season, returns for 2023, and is the favorite to start alongside Okereke. Davis has 343 tackles in 68 career games, but has played for three different teams and in just 13 games over the course of the last three seasons. Well, 2022 fifth-round pick Micah McFadden was ranked 77th out of 81 inside linebackers by PFF in 2022.
On top of that, 2022 sixth-round pick Darrian Beavers likely would have started alongside Tae Crowder to begin last season, but he tore his ACL in the preseason. There is a lot of hype around Beavers, but it's hard to expect much from a player who is coming off an ACL tear and has never played in an NFL game. The potential surely is there, though.
2. Interior offensive line
John Michael Schmitz was drafted 57th overall in April's draft and will be the Giants starting center in 2023. He is a rookie, though, so there will certainly be growing pains. Playing alongside Schmitz will likely be Mark Glowinski at right guard. Glowinski had an up-and-down 2022 season and was ranked as the 29th-best guard by PFF.
On the left side of Schmitz will be either Josh Ezeudu or Ben Bredeson. Ezeudu, a 2022 third-round pick, dealt with multiple injuries and played just 290 snaps in 2022. Bredeson also dealt with injury, and really struggled when on the field. PFF gave Bredeson a 57.5 grade for the 2022 season, which indicates he is a replaceable player. Glowinski can be serviceable for the Giants in 2023, but Big Blue is still looking for their two guards of the future.
Ezeudu is expected to come back to camp and play much better ball in Year 2. Marcus McKethan, a 2022 fifth-round pick who played college ball at North Carolina with Ezeudu, was one of many New York Giants to tear their ACL last year. He is an unknown, but a good athlete who could play some meaningful snaps next fall.
The oft-injured Shane Lemieux is also on the roster, as is Jack Anderson, who played sparingly last fall. It is safe to say there are a ton of questions on the inside of the Giants offensive line.
1. Punter
Many in Giants Nation fell in love with Jamie Gillan last fall due to his wonderful nickname, The Scottish Hammer. Truth be told, he did very little hammering in 2022 and he was way too inconsistent for our liking.
Gillan's 46.8 yards per punt in 2022 ranked 19th among NFL punters. Gillan punted the ball 75 times a season ago, but just 26 of them landed inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Gillan had a net average of just 40.6 yards in his first season in New York. That number was tied for 26th in the NFL among all punters.
Field position matters more in the NFL now than ever before. Coaches are going for it on fourth down more than ever. If a punter can pin the opposition deep, it will likely lead to the other coach being more conservative.
It is much easier for Martindale to stop an opposing offense when he needs to just stop them three times instead of four times. If the Giants opponents have to travel a long way down the field to get into scoring position, it makes it significantly easier for Big Blue's defense to stop the opposing offense.
Gillan was not pining teams back in 2022, which put Wink's unit on its heals. The Scottish Hammer needs to start hammering fast or Schoen should replace him instantly. He needs to have a bounce-back year for this team.