Big Blue Huddle

If I am glass half full, the quality of our defensive front will help Bricillo show the OL the standard they have to reach over the summer. No surprise the D has the early edge. We need it to be more even by preseason.

Not if I am offered a choice.

Pressures were undervalued historically but that does not mean they are as or more valuable on a play. Sacks usually gain field position and loss of down and the possibility of a fumble (an important % of NFL fumbles are sack fumbles year on year). Pressures bring a chance of loss of down and a slightly elevated chance of an interception per the data metrics.

Sacks are clearly more impactful as an individual play but they are less frequent so perhaps in total over an average game (rather than as an individual play) pressures might make a bigger combined contribution. Maybe in that specific way he has a point.

Bricillo might be the single most important offseason addition. If he can create a functional scheme and get Neal, JMS and Ezeudu to play nearer to draft status and create some rotational versatility he will deserve a medal. IF!! So much is riding on that. If the OL can approach average it will help the whole team as the O can function better and the D will be able to stay fresher and function more often in normal game situations.

I agree on the give me wins sentiment Philosophers but I have to take issue on lucky v strong wins. I never played pro sports but I was a small cog in a talented team that won a national schools rugby title (my school's only one ever) here in UK. The team included 5 schoolboy internationals and two became adult internationals (1 England, 1 Ireland).

We squeaked a 15-12 win with a dismal performance in the round of 32 against a team we had beaten by 40 points earlier in the season. I stunk. Most of us did.

We were so down when we came off the field but our coach (a former England international) told us see it for the gift it was and to make the most of it by going on to win it all. We were 100% focused every game from them remembering our good fortune and won 4 consecutive games, the last 2 as the clear underdog, to win it all.

Sometimes the lucky wins create a platform for future stronger wins. We will see this season if the feeling and experience some of our younger guys got from those late season wins help them grow and compete better this year. I know it can happen. Not a given but no win is ever a waste in my opinion.

It is an open-roof stadium. Munich is, on average, colder than NYC/NJ let alone Charlotte in November. Weather wise at least it should feel more like a Giants home game.

Under the current NFL rules the only real opportunity to set tempo and intensity on the field is in training camp and even that is greatly reduced from past eras.

What you can do in rookie camp and mini camp is establish tempo and intensity off the field, by demanding and enforcing that they be on time & attentive to meetings, learn the playbook and push hard in the gym/meet physical targets.

We cannot really see if it is American or Asian Mom until training camp but if they arrive at training camp looking confused and operating at walking pace again it will raise questions about what went before.

Development has been a big issue but the current roster does suggest it is improving IMO.

We have day 3 draft picks and UDFA set to start or play prominent roles in Slayton, Bellinger, McFadden. We have Brightwell, Coughlin who have both played important ST roles (and the departed Cam Brown gets a nod).

We have also rescued cast-off day 3 and UDFA from others and made something of them in Pinnock (drafted & cut by Jets with zero nfl snaps), Hodgins (4 nfl receptions) & McCloud (no nfl tackles etc.).

Holmes might be on his way out but Anderson, Fox, Davidson, Riley, Beavers, Belton, Hawkins III, Owens and this year's rookies will all get a chance to establish roles. I think it is fair to expect at least two of them to contribute positively and a couple more to be on ST.

And we cannot forget the UDFA QB who won games as a rookie...

I actually think Round 3 is our Kryptonite. Hopefully Hyatt and Phillips change that.

Robinson is nothing like Slayton and vice versa in terms of what they can do. Robinson these days post injuries is a possession receiver not any kind of wide/deep threat.

A couple of things to add.

Ghobrial was working for a top 5 STC in Boyer at the Jets and was very highly regarded in the building. Has a reputation for being detail oriented, ultra prepared and finding small advantages. That brings back memories of a guy who started out on ST way back when and wound up being a pretty decent DC then HC. Not saying he has that upside but those are good traits to possess.

Gano was already carrying a leg problem that was incurred/visible week one. I remember a chat I had with Ceri a couple of weeks before his season ending injury suggesting we might be wise to IR Gano to prevent a more serious injury. Given his age there is definitely some risk around his recovery and return.

I'd assume he is cheap. Competing with Hodgins for a role? A possibility to get some Waller 'big slot' snaps? He is said to be a good locker room guy and that has some value in our young, inexperienced WR room. No harm in seeing what he has left on a cheap deal IMO.

It cannot hurt. He should also be an asset in assessing appetite for the game as he was a worthy inheritor of the alpha lunch pail mentality from Richie Seubert. It will be interesting to see them if the use him as a specialist for OL and maybe DL or more generally.

Lock is behind Jones in 'experience' despite being part of the same draft class because of nearly 3 years backing up (including one with no snaps). Questions over Lock's preparation, focus and processing saw him fall to R2 in 2019. They continued in Denver. I suspect his ceiling is a slightly less bonkers Jameis Winston boom/bust type. Can Daboll, Kafka, Tierney improve him? It might be fun finding out.

I used OTC for the numbers elvis. I have them and Spotrac bookmarked. They both have pros and cons in terms of ease of use/clarity of data but sometimes one or other of them spots something the other misses.

Very kind Mighty. Just a comfort area as a Finance guy. The rules are not that complex when you take the trouble to work through them.

Schoen seems to have an instinctively relatively cautious approach to cap management though he had to do one or two things he wanted to avoid early on cleaning up the inherited mess. As an example his shying clear of void years for the most part and his use of incentives and roster bonuses provides a bit of a hedge against injury and underperformance.

If we did have a bounce back this season with key players like DJ staying fit and over-performing incentives the positive adjustment we have this year might become become a negative number next year as the difference between incentives earned in season & those treated as 'likely' (so included in this year's cap) counts on the next year's cap.

I have just assumed OTC have got their adjustment calculations correct rather than trying to work through contract by contract but an adjustment in our favour this year makes sense given under-performance/injuries. Any errors they make tend to be minor so it should be fine.

He is right about most of the mechanics but is wrong about dead cap. The Dead Cap is factored into the preseason 51 calculation so we do have cap space right now. Our $19m dead against the cap is mid table (21/32).

NFL Cap 255.4m
Carried over 2.5
Adjustment 2.5*
Top 51 (235.0)
Dead Cap (19.0)
Available Cap 6.4
Data from OTC
* The adjustment is a technical credit

You typically need an extra $6m to cover incremental rookie contracts over the bottom guys on the 51. Another $5-6m is needed to cover the shift from 51 to 53 and inclusion of the PS (dependent on the make-up of the PS) so he is correct that our effective cap space is lower, in effect negative. In fact it is likely to be more negative once you include IR/PUP but not c. $18m.

In summary, he understands it better than most media but his dead cap error led him off course. He ignores the fact Giants have easy options to help manage the squeeze. There are several contract restructures to create space that we can do unilaterally (by rule, without any negotiation) and if Waller quits and we post June him we also gain space.

So, NO we are not in actual cap trouble but we are cap restricted, will have to do more cap management and cannot just offer big contracts to veterans to improve CB, DT, OL.

P.S. Restructures and post June designations do tend to create future dead cap but like every NFL team bar the extreme contract manipulators (New Orleans, potentially Philly in future with their increasing use of void years) we can manage this somewhat comfortably when the cap is rising.

Ideally you want to keep dead cap at a reasonable level and limit it to one year per contract (no void years). We might well have a bigger dead cap hit but more cap space next year if we cut Jones and draft a rookie. We would have a better cap platform for the future beyond 2025 as a result.

Here endeth my accountant geek out!