5 Crucial Training Camp Questions Facing John Harbaugh's Giants

This might be the trickiest item on the team’s to-do list because a good part of it centers around Malik Nabers’s status.

Even if Nabers is, as general manager Joe Schoen believes, ready for Week 1, the Giants will probably want to carry an extra receiver while Nabers, who would probably start on a pitch count, works himself back up to handling a full load.

If Nabers isn’t ready, then that leaves an opening for an extra receiver. And then there is a matter of where the tight ends factor into the mix.

If Isaiah Likely is going to be that big slot receiver for the Giants, do they need to keep seven receivers, or can they get by with six?

New York won’t want to cut loose a receiver who can help take on some of Nabers’s snaps, which is why right now it’s virtually impossible to nail down what the depth chart is going to look like at this position.  

Get Jaxson Dart More Comfortable in the New Offense

When we last left quarterback Jaxson Dart, he was still getting acclimated to a new offense that, in his words, contained “a lot of things that I haven't done before” and which also has “a lot of just things that we can do within the system from a personnel standpoint.”

One thing Dart will need to get used to is working more under center. Last year, he did so in just 42 of his drop-backs, going  17-of-29 and taking six sacks in the process.

Working under center challenges a quarterback to view the field differently and, for a moment or two, turn his back on part of the defense’s development post-snap, all of which can cause a young quarterback to get the ball out of his hand a tick or two too late.

During spring practices, Dart at times looked hesitant throwing the ball, but with continued reps, including those he’s expected to get in the preseason games, his comfort level working under center will improve.

Sort Out the CB2 Battle

Harbaugh is likely counting on a three-way competition between Greg Newsome II, Deonte Banks, and rookie Colton Hood to fill the spot vacated by Cor’Dale Flott after he made the jump to the Titans.

Based on the 'reps' distribution in the spring, Banks and Newsome are neck-and-neck for the job, but of course, jobs are not won in the spring.

Schematically speaking, Hood, the rookie, is the best fit for defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson’s aggressive press-man scheme. Hood is as physical as they come, is solid against the run, is a strong tackler, and has a high ceiling as a boundary cornerback.

What’s potentially holding him back is a lack of NFL experience, an early tendency for grabbiness in coverage, and the fact that he jumped around to three different college programs in as many years. That said, the likely outcome of this battle is that Hood will begin his NFL career in a situational role, which will eventually be expanded before he moves into the starting job full-time.

In the interim, Banks, if he can continue his strong showing from the spring, should have the inside track. Banks has everything one could want in a boundary cornerback, including size, length, and speed.

He’s an ideal fit for a press-man scheme, but he must avoid the mental mistakes that cascaded into a loss of confidence and the loss of defensive snaps to Flott.  

Newsome doesn’t have legitimate lockdown speed, but he does have experience and a high football IQ, which is more than half the battle.  

Figure Out the Defensive Line Group  

If the wide receiver group is muddied right now, the same can be said about the defensive line, where the unit also has over a dozen candidates vying for what should be about six roster spots.

The team is moving away from revolving the unit around one player, that being Dexter Lawrence, who was traded to the Bengals prior to this year’s draft.

They’ve instead brought in multiple veterans of varying shapes, sizes, and experiences. But there is going to be one key shift here: a heavy (no pun intended) focus on stopping the run.

DJ Reader is penciled in as the starting nose tackle. The starting 3-tech spot though is up for grabs, with the early favorites being one of Shelby Harris or second-year man Darius Alexander.

Besides figuring out the 3-tech spot, Giants defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson is looking for positional flexibility so that, regardless of whether he runs an odd or even front, he has guys who can play both.

On paper, Wilson has that flexibility among his defensive linemen, leaving training camp and preseason reps as the deciding factor once the pads are on.

Sort the Offensive Line Depth

The Giants’ projected starting offensive line appears to be set, though that unit in itself isn’t without its questions, such as how well will rookie Francis Mauigoa take to being moved inside full-time, and will there be any sort of push at left guard?  

The big question remains the depth, particularly along the interior. Who, from among Lucas Patrick and Bryan Hudson, will back up center John Michael Schmitz? And who are the backup guards?

The guard position might just be the biggest question mark as head coach John Harbaugh looks to make that line a more power-based, physical unit.

With two members–Schmitz and left guard Jon Runyan–in the final year of their respective contracts, do the Giants have someone already on the roster who can succeed one or both of them?

The Giants did double-dip in the offensive line draft talent pool this year, adding Mauigoa and J.C. Davis, the latter one of the team’s three sixth-round picks. They also gave mulligans to former draft picks Evan Neal and Joshua Ezeudu.

On paper, that’s not an overwhelming group to get excited about, but once the pads go on in August, they’ll all have a chance to change the narrative and either assuage any concerns about the depth or further amplify them.

Final Big Picture Thoughts

The Giants have a lot more to sort out between now and the start of camp on July 28 and the start of the season against the Cowboys on September 13.

The good news is that the installs done over the spring were successful enough that the players will be able to hit the ground running. But again, in most cases, the question will be which players will actually be called upon to run those systems once the curtain rises on the new NFL season.