The Brian Daboll era will get underway on Thursday night when the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots in their preseason opener.
This will be the first time we’ll truly be able to access how the players are developing after the first two weeks of training camp.
As Daboll stated earlier in the week, he anticipates all of his players will play on Thursday night. This means there will be several noteworthy items to keep an keep on eye on in Big Blue’s first preseason game.
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The play of Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones has had an up-and-down training camp thus far. The worst of it came in Monday’s practice when he was intercepted twice. But the coaching staff has faith in the 25-year-old quarterback and believes this offensive system will bring out the best in him.
He’ll get a tough test to see how he can operate Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka’s offense against Bill Belichick’s defense. If he plays well, it will be a good first step in trying to change his career around. If he performs poorly, then doubt may creep into his head.
How will the offensive line gel in their first test?
For the first time in many years, there’s optimism that New York’s revamped offensive line will be decent this year. The addition of seventh overall pick Evan Neal, along with veterans Mark Glowinski and Jon Feliciano makes them better on paper. But it always takes time to build cohesiveness when you have this many new additions.
Kayvon Thibodeaux’s highly-anticipated NFL debut
Kayvon Thibodeaux has been amazing in training camp, and now he’ll get to show off his skills in his first NFL action. New York has high hopes for the fifth overall pick as they believe he is the dominant pass rusher they’ve been looking for.
Now we’ll get a chance to see if he can be a disruptive force against the Patriots offense.
Which wide receiver makes the most of their opportunity?
In addition to the top three wide receivers on the Giants depth chart (Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, and Wan’Dale Robinson) several receivers have been impressive this summer.
Some of the receivers that have stood out in camp are Richie James, Colin Johnson, Robert Foster, and Keelan Doss. After a rough first week, Darius Slayton has bounced back and made some great catches recently.
The receiving corps is probably the deepest position on the Giants roster. Whoever outside of the three starters can shine the most on Thursday night, will bode well for their chances of making the roster. We all witnessed how Victor Cruz rose from obscurity to an overnight sensation after his three-touchdown performance against the Jets in 2010.
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The performance of the secondary
With the departure of James Bradberry and Logan Ryan, an area that was once a strength for New York is now a huge question mark. Not only are two valuable players gone from last year, but now they’re learning new defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale’s aggressive scheme.
The unit has performed well in camp, but now we’ll get to see how they fare against an offense they don’t see in practice every day.
Battle for 3rd running back role heats up
We all know that Saquon Barkley will be the focal point of New York’s offense and that Matt Breida is poised to be his backup. But both Gary Brightwell and Antonio Williams have flashed and made a good impression on their teammates and coaching staff.
Whoever outperforms the other, will have the inside track on being the third-string running back.
Who will emerge as the returners?
The Giants have one of the best special teams coaches in the league in Thomas McGaughey, and he has the task of deciding who will be the return men for Big Blue this season.
Various players such as C.J Board and Richie James have spent time fielding kicks, but expect McGaughey to have a couple of players ready to return kicks on Thursday night.
Pre-snap movement
In the preseason offensive game plans are always vanilla as they don’t want to show too much before the regular season. But we will see a new wrinkle in New York’s offense this season as they will have a modern-day offense that utilizes pre-snap movement.
Expect to see the first, second, and third team offenses using pre-snap movement often throughout the game.
