10 things to watch in Giants vs. Vikings

The 2024 starting offensive line features three new players – guards Jon Runyan and Greg Van Roten along with right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor. Additionally, veteran guard Aaron Stinnie was brought into shore up the team’s depth on the interior of the line. The three new starters will join left tackle Andrew Thomas and center John Michael Schmitz up front when the Giants kick off the season Sunday. Despite the unit suffering some injuries over the summer, all five projected starters are now healthy and ready to go.

“First of all, I’d say that the players that we’ve added, Stinnie included, have brought veteran presence, leadership and communication,” Daboll told the media Monday. “They’ve played the game, they know how the game needs to be played. In terms of the five players playing, you’re always a work in progress. Those players have, when they’ve practiced, they’ve all practiced well, albeit not all together, but they’ve all practiced well. They’ve come in, they’ve worked hard, they’re smart and they communicate with one another well.

“The last couple practices we had here before the break, it was good to get them all out there. (You) do everything you can do, that’s not just them, that’s everybody, to be as ready as you can to go for week one.”

On top of the new additions upfront, the Giants also brought in new coaches. Offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo and his assistant James Ferentz have garnered plenty of praise from both the players and other coaches over the last few months. Bricillo coached Van Roten and Eluemunor in Las Vegas last year, which seems to have helped speed up the learning process for the entire group. The new-look line has already provided a jolt to the offense as a whole.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in that group,” quarterback Daniel Jones said Tuesday. “I think they’ve played really well throughout training camp. We’ve got some veterans who (we) brought in, some older guys who I think have done a good job and gotten on the same page. I think Carm has done a really good job working with that group. I feel like we have a good plan this week. I’m excited. I think that group’s played well.”

“It’s been really exciting,” Slayton added. “Like you said, those guys have come in and done a great job embracing the task and they’ve played really good ball throughout camp. I think this is probably one of our better, maybe the best camp, since I’ve been here that we had up front, both on pass protection and in the run game. It’s been a blessing to have those guys be here and they’re veteran players and guys that know what they’re doing and have been great additions to our team.”

The NFL implemented the following two rule changes for the 2024 season:

DYNAMIC KICKOFF – For the upcoming season, the NFL approved the implementation of the dynamic kickoff, a new design resembling a typical scrimmage play and more rigid zones on the field that players must occupy. The kicking team will now line up on the receiving team’s 40-yard line. The receiving team will line up in the Setup Zone, a five-yard area from the 35 to the 30-yard line, where at least nine players must line up, including at least seven with a foot on the 35. The play begins only when the ball either hits the landing zone or is touched by the receiving team.

PENALTY FOR HIP-DROP TACKLE – With player health and safety always a priority, the league approved a personal foul penalty (loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down) to eliminate a potentially dangerous tackling technique, the hip-drop tackle.

It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:

• grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms;
• and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.

The 2024 Minnesota Vikings will also look a lot different from the team the Giants defeated in the 2022 Wild Card. Perhaps the biggest difference will be under center, where Sam Darnold has taken over as the team’s starting quarterback, replacing veteran Kirk Cousins, who is now with the Atlanta Falcons. After starting 55 games across his first five seasons with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers, Darnold spent the 2023 campaign with the San Francisco 49ers where he started one game. He completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 189 yards and a touchdown in the 49ers’ Week 18 loss to the Rams, while adding 14 yards and an additional score on the ground.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Sam,” Daboll said. “I know he’s been to four different places, but he’s an athletic quarterback that has a good head on his shoulders, knows where to go with the football. He’s surrounded by some really good players at Minnesota and experience helps at any position. But I’ve always been a big fan of Sam, and he’s got a good team around him, a good play caller, and it’ll be certainly a challenge.”

This season, Darnold will be playing with a talented group of playmakers around him. The Vikings signed veteran running back Aaron Jones this offseason, adding him to an offense that features one of the league’s up-and-coming young receivers in Jordan Addison. But of course, the Vikings offense starts with the three-time Pro Bowler and former NFL Offensive Player of the Year, wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

“You better know where he’s lined up,” Daboll told reporters about the star wideout. “He can hurt you in all three areas of the field. Catch and run, intermediate, vertical, double moves. They’ll use him in a variety of spots, and then you look on the opposite side of it with Addison, who we did a lot of work on when he was coming out last year, who’s an exceptional route runner, very gifted receiver, was excellent at Pitt, and you can see. Then they acquire a veteran in Jones, who’s a very good runner, can run inside, run outside, solid offensive line…”

While injuries derailed a good chunk of his 2023 campaign, Jefferson finished the season with 30 receptions for 476 yards and two touchdowns in Minnesota’s final four games, all with Nick Mullens under center. Meanwhile, Addison put together a strong rookie season with 70 receptions for 911 yards and 10 touchdowns. As for Jones, the veteran back finished his Green Bay Packers tenure with five consecutive games of 100+ rushing yards with an average yards per carry of more than 5.0 in each of those outings (and three games of 6.0+ yards per carry).

Moving over to the defense, Minnesota brought in a new play-caller prior to the 2023 season. Brian Flores is now heading into his second year as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator. Daboll knows the defense they will face this Sunday won’t look anything like the defense they went up against twice in 2022.

“I’d say it’s a completely different defense with Brian there and with a lot of new players that they’ve added,” the head coach said. “It’s a pressure defense. He pressures often. Sometimes the entire game. I mean you go back, we’ve competed against one another when I was at Buffalo, him in Miami, and you go back and look at the game they played against the Rams when they had (Detroit Lions quarterback Jared) Goff and (Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean) McVay and they blitz zeroed it every single snap. He presents a variety of challenges with the fronts and then you add the players.

“(Cornerback Stephon) Gilmore, a veteran now that came over there, (safety) Harrison Smith, (defensive lineman) Harrison Phillips. They’ve got completely different edge guys with (outside linebacker Andrew) Van Ginkel, (outside linebacker Dallas) Turner, (outside linebacker Jonathan) Greenard from Houston. So it’ll be a challenge, it’s a challenge mentally. Make sure that you’re on point with everything you need to be on point with to make sure a play works against 11 people that pressure, I’d say, quite often.”

In his first season with Minnesota, Flores helped the defense improve from 31st overall in yards to 16th in 2023, including top-eight rankings in both rushing yards per play (fourth) and rushing yards per game (eighth). The Vikings led the NFL in forced fumbles with 21, three more than any other team in the league, and it marked the most forced fumbles in a single season in franchise history since 2007 when the team also forced 21.