Adoree Jackson, Daniel Jones, the Offensive Line and More

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Cornerback. Adoree’ Jackson is here on a one-year deal, making this deal more of a band-aid than a long-term solution. Cornerback should be a top priority next offseason.

If you’re talking short term, I’m curious to see if Gunner Olszewski will be ready next week. Feld’s position is very important, and if he’s not ready to return punts, then what will the Giants do?

It’s simple, Andrew. Are they getting better every week, or are they having the same issues week after week? Take the offensive line, for example. Last year, that unit failed to make a play to save its collective lives in Week 1, and by Week 18, they still haven’t made a play. That’s a failure in my eyes.

Progress is never linear: you’ll see peaks and valleys, but the key to knowing a franchise is truly on the right track is seeing fewer valleys and more peaks as the season progresses.

Jermaine Eluemunor, unless he is injured.

Ed, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to give grades without seeing this team play and determining if the arrow is pointing up. If you want to see grades, we’ll do weekly reports on the different units, but I’m not counting chickens before they hatch. I hope you understand.

I like him, who wouldn’t? Slayton is a true pro who does everything right and has the right attitude. I think he’s an exceptional mentor for Nabers and I hope Nabers absorbs as much of Slayton’s knowledge as possible.

Probably not. Cornerback wasn’t the only concern I had about this team. That said, I’d like to see them do better than 8-9. I’ll happily take a loss there if I’m wrong.

For starters, Ezeudu played tackle at North Carolina—508 snaps as a left tackle and 171 as a right tackle, to be precise. But he also played the majority of his snaps (1,247) as a left guard. So I guess the Giants at the time threw caution to the wind and figured that since Ezeudu played tackle in college, he could, with a little training, make it to the professional level.

That being said, the entire offensive line approach last year was an absolute disaster, and not just with how Ezeudu was handled.

Who said they were going to try out Farley? The guy has been injured a lot throughout his career, most recently due to a hamstring issue. Do you really want them to spend money on a guy whose injury history has limited him to 12 games over the last three seasons?

I like this. I’ve been yelling for months about the cornerback depth and how the Giants, despite saying they’re happy with their young depth, contradict themselves with their plays or attempts at plays. I think the Giants have a little more depth in place now and I just hope Adoree’ stays healthy.

I wouldn’t go that far right now. Look, can we both agree that the team’s training last year was a complete disaster? If a kid isn’t progressing, then you blame that player, but when you have a bunch of them on the field who look like they have no idea what they’re doing, you look at the coaches.

Neal — and I know people don’t want to hear this, but I’m going to say it anyway — is a decent run blocker. If Carmen Bricillo can get him comfortable in his pass blocking game and smooth out his awkwardness and footwork, they could have something.

Ezeudu’s problem, I think, is his self-confidence. He really gets demoralized when he makes mistakes and he needs to learn to let go and understand that mistakes are the reason there are erasers on the end of pencils. It would also help if the coaches let him play guard instead of forcing him to play tackle (a position he played in college).

Who is responsible for the mess this organization has created? Daniel Jones has never shown any qualities better than those of a mid-level player. Why not tag Jones and pay Barkley? Now you have to bench Jones because if he gets hurt he has to be paid. Where is the common sense? I am ashamed of the sheer stupidity of this organization lately. It has taken all the joy out of football. — Richard V.

Richard, I understand how you feel. I think there are a lot of people who share your sentiments. The decline of this franchise is a multi-year accumulation of factors, from poor drafts and questionable free agency strategies to poor salary cap management to a revolving door of coaching staffs.

Why didn’t you tag Jones? Richard, why do you think the Giants tried to sign Barkley during the bye week? BEFORE He became a free agent? Why do you think we heard about offers made to Barkley before we even heard about their discussions with Jones?

I’ll tell you why. They wanted to sign him so they could tag Jones. Unfortunately, Saquon’s team wouldn’t play the nice card, while Daniel’s team was ready to dance, so the Giants signed him and used the tag on Barkley.

Why do you think they put an out in Jones’ contract? Again, I’ll tell you why: they had doubts and needed to see if he was more than a one-year wonder for them in this system.

Hang in there, Richard. I think the worst is behind us, at least I hope so.