These are not your 2023 New York Giants

It was clear throughout the New York Giants’ offseason appearance on ‘Hard Knocks’ that GM Joe Schoen understood that a repeat of the mess the 2023 season became for the Giants would not be acceptable.

Schoen referred at times to both the need to “win some f—-ing games” and that the miserable, often non-competitive, 1-5 start the Giants got off to last season could not happen again.

Watch the Giants on the practice field and it is clear they understand the pressure has been ratcheted up.

When practice for the 2023 season began, the Giants were coming off a shockingly successful 2022 season. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They won a playoff game. Brian Daboll was the Coach of the Year. Those things were not supposed to happen, and in retrospect, it is clear that the 2022 Giants were a fun, overachieving bunch.

They were an aberration. A team that, in truth, was at the beginning of a rebuild with a new GM and new head coach.

Unfortunately, they seemed to prep for the 2023 season like they believed they were a veteran, contending team that had already arrived.

Competitive periods during spring workouts were almost non-existent. Players rehabbing injuries did little to nothing on the field. Even in training camp, there was an emphasis on 7-on-7 passing work rather than 11-on-11 full-team drills.

Dan Duggan of The Athletic, bless his overly-detailed note-taking heart, has the full breakdown of the three training camps run by Daboll:

The Giants have held 11 intrasquad practices this summer. Jones hasn’t thrown a single pass in seven-on-seven during those sessions. He threw 50 passes in seven-on-seven drills through the first 11 practices of camp last year. Daboll used seven-on-seven drills sparingly in his first camp in 2022.

Those seven-on-seven attempts have been directly replaced by 11-on-11 work. Jones has 205 attempts in 11-on-11 periods through 13 practices this camp. He had 157 attempts in 11-on-11 periods through 13 practices of last year’s camp.

The Giants also have practiced in full pads more this year. Tuesday will be their seventh practice of camp in full pads. A league-mandated acclimation period prevented the Giants from wearing full pads in their first four practices, so they will be in full pads for seven of 10 possible practices this summer.

The Giants wore full pads for seven of 19 training camp practices last year. That was down from 10 of 19 camp practices in 2022. The CBA allows teams to conduct a maximum of 16 fully padded practices during camp.

Two of the Giants’ practices during this camp have lasted at least two hours: A grueling two-hour, one-minute session in 92-degree heat on Aug. 2 and a physical two-hour, two-minute practice on Monday. Daboll never had a practice reach the two-hour mark in his first two training camps.

As an aside, who keeps three years’ worth of notes that are that detailed?

Anyway, things are different this season. The Giants have practiced harder. They have practiced longer. They have practiced more physically. Daboll is demanding more physicality.

After one of those fully-padded two-hour practices, on a 90+ degree day where the on-field temperature felt like 100+, I asked veteran defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches if it made him angry to practice that hard and that long in the searing heat.

“I’m not pissed at him [Daboll]. I freaking love him,” Nunez-Roches said. “Sometimes we may go down to Florida. Sometimes we may go out to the heat. Sometimes we may be in Arizona. You never know.

“When the heat comes, it needs to be an advantage for us, not a disadvantage. So I’m never going to knock that. I’d rather be out here than inside any day.”

There have been instances where banged-up players like Jermaine Eleumunor and Brian Burns, or bored ones like Malik Nabers, have forced their way back into practices when they were being held back.

“I thought we brought guys in that have some toughness, young players, some veteran players, and again, this is a physical sport,” Daboll said after Thursday’s preseason opener. “Mental and physical, so being mentally tough, being physically tough, I think you’ve got to train that. You do that in training camp. It’s also the type of individuals you bring in. I think Ghobi [special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial] does a great job with that. I think Shane [defensive coordinator Shane Bowen] does a great job with that, the new coaches we brought in. We’re a work in progress, but we’re going to try to be physical.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but the style in which I expect us to play is a physical brand of football. Is it always perfect? No, but the effort, the attention to detail, the concentration, the focus on the sideline, the communication from the coaches, the chemistry together, that’s what you’re trying to build. We’re not there yet but we’re certainly trying to build it.”

Will it lead to more victories in 2024? Maybe. Maybe not. It should, though, give the Giants a better chance to be competitive early in the season.