Cover 3: Important offseason begins for Giants

The Giants.com crew breaks down the season-ending press conferences as an important offseason begins:

John Schmeelk: The Giants decided to stay the course by keeping Joe Schoen as their general manager and Brian Daboll as their head coach. Dan and Matt will discuss decision itself and the team’s most important mission this offseason: finding a quarterback.

But there’s a lot more work to do with this roster than just adding one player at the most important position.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t think our defense played very well this year at all,” team president John Mara said. “I know that when you have an offense that performs like that, you’re putting more pressure on your defense. But we need to make improvements there. I’m tired of watching teams go up and down the field on us. So, I think that has to be addressed.”

The Giants finished 28^th in defensive DVOA and 26^th in EPA allowed per play this season. If you prefer more basic statistics, they finished 25^th in yards allowed per play, 24^th in yards allowed per game, and 21^st in points allowed per game. The teams that finished below the Giants in all those categories are basically all teams that did not make the playoffs, spare an appearance in one or two categories by the Rams and Lions, the latter of which lost half their defense to injuries this year.

The Giants need to improve their defensive line depth and secondary. They need to stop the run better and allow fewer big plays (68 plays of 20+ yards – sixth-most in the NFL). The team also needs to take the ball away more. The Giants had only 15 takeaways. Only four teams had fewer – Raiders, Patriots, Browns and Jaguars.

While the Giants have some intriguing pieces on offense, there needs to be major improvement from a group that averaged 16.1 points per game (second-fewest in the NFL to the Browns). Does the team need another top playmaker at wide receiver? It can’t hurt given only one team had fewer 30+ yard completions than the Giants’ 12. It is hard to argue against more depth on the offensive line. Will that be enough to help whomever the new quarterback is?

There are plenty of additions to be made, but everything can’t be fixed in an offseason. It doesn’t mean ownership is not expecting improvement next season.

“It better not take too long because I’ve just about run out of patience,” Mara said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Schoen was asked if he would spend the team’s cap space recklessly or trade future picks to accelerate the improvement, and this was his answer:

“I would never do that. I understand we’re going to build this thing the right way. I’m not going to do a Hail Mary for self-preservation or anything like that. We have a plan in place that we believe in and we’re going to stick with that. Again, I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for ownership and what they believe in. We have really good communication with them. They understand where we are and where we’re trying to go. There will be no Hail Mary’s.”

They can use the contracts given to Jermaine Eluemunor and Jon Runyan Jr. last year as examples to copy. The team also has star power with players like Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Malik Nabers, and Andrew Thomas, but they will look for veteran starters and rotational players across both sides of the ball, especially on defense.

Then in April, the goal is to continue the success of the 2024 Draft Class. The Giants will be selecting in the top three of every round. The Giants need as many good players as possible regardless of where they play. Fill the holes in free agency and find more cornerstone players in the draft.

That’s the guide for a turnaround next season.