Presser Points: 100th season about to commence

🔵 The first official injury report won’t come out until Wednesday, but “everybody’s practicing” as of Tuesday afternoon.

🔵 In case there was any doubt, Daboll confirmed he will continue to call plays for the offense in the regular season. “I’m doing it,” he said.

🔵 The Giants will give “plenty of work today” to veteran cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, who recently returned to the team. “We’ll see where he’s at. We’ll evaluate him in individuals, then we’ll continue to evaluate him throughout the practice. He’ll get good work.”

🔵 On Monday, Jackson said he always kept his mind on being ready to go Week 1, but “football shape” is different. Jackson will also wear No. 21 instead of No. 22, which now belongs to rookie Dru Phillips. “Dru had asked me did I want it back, and I’m like, ‘no, you can keep it,'” Jackson said. “I’ve seen him making some plays in it, so I’m like, ‘you got it, you look good in it, so you got it.'”

🔵 Running back Devin Singletary can be used “on all three downs. So, whether that’s running inside, outside, pass protection, routes, you don’t have to sub him a bunch, in terms of this person has this specific plays, this other running back has this specific plays. So, I’d say he’s an all-purpose back for us.”

🔵 The Giants have one of the youngest rosters in the NFL with a handful of rookies primed to produce right away. How will they handle it?

“I think that’s why you have veteran leadership to help those guys, show them their routines. I think the assistant coaches do a good job with them. Again, they’ve played a lot of football so it’s more about creating a routine for yourself in this environment for the NFL and making sure you’re doing what you need to do on a consistent basis. Have the discipline to do it right, day in and day out. Whether that’s meetings, whether that’s getting proper rest, whether it’s prehab, rehab, whatever it may be. You’re constantly trying to educate them on creating a routine that works best for them.”

🔵 The Giants are wearing their winged helmets at practice this week as part of the “Century Red” uniform. The offense is practicing in red jerseys (quarterbacks in blue), and the defense is in white.

🔵 How are the 2024 Giants embracing the 99 teams that came before them? “We have tremendous respect for the organization and for the people that have come before us. Guys like (Former Head) Coach (Bill) Parcells, (Former Head) Coach (Tom) Coughlin, (Former Giants linebacker) Carl Banks, (Former Giants linebacker) Lawrence Taylor, (Former Giants quarterback) Phil Simms, (Former Giants quarterback) Eli Manning, the list goes on and on. Our focus has to be singular on getting ready for the Minnesota Vikings and doing everything we can do. That’s all you ask of everybody in the organization, the coaching staff, players, is to put your head down and go to work and leave no stone unturned so that you’re as prepared as you can be to go out there on opening day.”

🔵 In two games against the Vikings in the Daboll era, the Giants totaled 876 yards on offense. In the Giants’ Wild Card victory at Minnesota on January 15, 2023, Daniel Jones became the first quarterback in NFL postseason history with 300+ passing yards, 2 touchdown passes, and 70+ rushing yards in a game. A few weeks later, the Vikings hired Brian Flores as their defensive coordinator.

“I’d say it’s a completely different defense with Brian there and with a lot of new players that they’ve added,” Daboll 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. (Minnesota Vikings 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.

“I would say the one constant theme is there is pressure,” Daboll said. “Some of the coverages you’ve seen in college, call it hot coverage where they play two under, three deep. There’s a principle behind it like cover zero where it’s like that but they’re protected a little bit more. One under, four deep. But usually there’s always more rushers than four coming at you from different areas. But I think BF-Flo has done a really good job there. Again, it’s a completely different defensive scheme and structure than we saw two years ago. Couldn’t be any more different. And then you add the pieces that they’ve added, they’re a good defense.”

🔵 As for the Vikings’ offense, Daboll was asked what challenges it presents. “Significant ones. Start with (Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin) Jefferson. You better know where he’s lined up. 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 (wide receiver Jordan) 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 (running back Aaron) Jones (Sr.), who’s a very good runner, can run inside, run outside, solid offensive line, and (quarterback) Sam (Darnold). You go back and watch Sam. I’ve watched Sam for a long time at all the spots he’s been, whether it’s San Francisco, the Jets, Carolina. He’ll be ready to play. He’s a pro. Got a lot of respect for him.”

🔵 This is Daboll’s 24^th opening day in the coaching ranks, and he has seen enough to know that every year is different. “We’ve played on Thursday nights, played on Sundays at 1. It really doesn’t matter what you did the year before or two years ago, whatever that is. What matters is doing everything you can do for this week to get ready to play a football game. That’s all of us, what we’re all going to do.”