JaguarsTalk: Jaguars vs Giants

JT: I feel like I wrote the term “stop-gap” about 100 times. If I didn’t, I certainly should have

We’re already into week seven and the hapless Jags of old are sitting at 4-2 on the season with a three game win streak on the line. Who would have thought? Well, we did, and now it’s the job of Trevor Lawrence and his band of merry men to actually make it happen. This week the New York football Giants face off with the teal cats (I’m trying it out, let me know what you think) in The Bank. When looking at this game before the season starts, it would seem to be one of bottom dwellers. An uninteresting sixty minutes of fumbles and follies that nobody would want to watch, thus the 1pm start time (the NFL obviously made their mind up about the 2022 Jags long ago considering every game but three is at 1pm). But that might not be the case. At this point in the JaguarsTalk season outlook series, the Jags have won three straight games and are facing off against a team whose season is already over. Enter the New York Giants.

The starting offense of the New York Giants hasn’t changed much from the previous season. Daniel Jones is still at the helm and Saquon Barkley is still carrying the rock. The three handsy guys, Golladay, Toney and Shepard all remain the same. In looking at these offensive skill positions, NY may have some issues. Will Daniel Jones become what he was thought to be when drafted? This is the same question Jaguars fans are asking about Trevor Lawrence, the difference being that Lawrence was a better QB coming out of college and currently has a much better cast around him. If Jones continues to underwhelm then new Giant and former VT Hokie, Tyrod Taylor, takes over. Taylor brings a lot of NFL experience. He can run and pass, as can Jones, however Taylor has a quickness, an escapability that Jones doesn't quite have. So do the Giants have a quarterback controversy? There have been some questions about who will be QB1 coming out of training camp. According to ESPN staff writer, Jordan Raanan, “the Giants believe Jones is a quarterback you can build around, even if they need to see it before putting up the money that proves it completely.” The last part of that quote tells us everything we need to know about the attitude of the Giants brass this year. They don’t expect to win a lot. They don’t expect to compete. What they expect is to use the 2022 season to decide whether or not they want to spend the money to surround Daniel Jones with the players necessary to be a successful contender moving forward. The Giants are a year behind the Jaguars in that respect. The Jags spent that money to bring in everybody and the kitchen sink so that Trevor Lawrence has what he needs to win this year, right now. We could end the column right here because this is the sole reason the Giants will lose this game. 

One interesting point I want to make is that Jones won’t be the starter at this point in the season. I believe the Giants will have made their decision on Jones before week seven and it is JaguarsTalk’s belief that when the G-men come to Jacksonville they will be led by Tyrod Taylor. Jones is seemingly always injured. He has missed multiple games in every professional season thus far. He is coming off a neck injury that caused him to miss the last six games of last season. In addition, it doesn’t help Daniel’s cause that he is 12-25 as a starter and in 38 career games he’s had 49 turnovers. The Giants believe that this is the year he is going to put it all together, but do they really? Obviously not, instead of surrounding Jones with what he needs to be successful, NY brass wants him to succeed BEFORE the Giants give him what he needs to be successful in today’s NFL. They’ve set Jones up for failure so that they can oust him and start over. The Giants brass have already given up this year. This was evident months ago when GM Joe Schoen said not to expect the Giants to be overly active in free agency.

Speaking of free agency let’s look at who the Giants did add. Tight end Ricky Seals-Jones from Washington. Seals-Jones was a second string tight end in D.C. but left because he looks to be the starter in NY. NY had Evan Engram but lost him to, guess who, the Jaguars. Seals-Jones is not an upgrade at the tight end position, in fact he may be viewed as a step backward. They also added Quarterback Tyrod Taylor. He is most definitely the best free agency pick up for the Giants as he will be their starter by week seven. Rumor has it that NY was trying to grab Mitchell Trubisky as a backup but we believe Taylor will actually perform better for NY than Trubisky would have. It’s a bit rich for a team limited on cap space to give a back up QB a two year $11 million contract with $4.2 million guaranteed, unless they too expect him to ultimately start. The Giants also slightly upgraded their offensive line with the signing of guard Mark Glowinski. Glowinski is a needed upgrade in run blocking which should help the downward spiraling Saquon Barkley, but he is a below average pass protector and really just an all around average player. They then signed offensive lineman Jon Feliciano, offensive guard Jamil Douglas, LS Casey Kreiter, all to one-year deals. The Giants are just throwing numbers at the offensive line hoping that quantity wins over quality. It won’t. It never does. They also signed WRs CJ Board, Robert Foster and Richie James, RB Matt Breida, DE Jihad Ward, DT Justin Ellis, all to one year deals. Most of the Giants acquisitions are signed to one-year deals, and all of them are stop-gap measures. Lateral moves at best. Taylor and Glowinski are the only two players who might be an improvement. Most of these signings weren’t starters last season and some were even on practice squads. The Giants are not trying to win in 2022, they are trying to start over in 2023, without Daniel Jones and possibly without Saquon Barkley. The question is did NY do a good job drafting the beginnings of their future team with their eleven 2022 draft picks?

In looking at the Giants' draft, they had a few significant picks who will be the foundation around which to build their new team. Most notably, the fifth overall pick in the draft, linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux. Thibodeaux could have gone number one overall, he is that good. He is explosive and has an infectious personality but he won’t be enough to change the outcome of this game against the Jaguars, let alone the Giants season. Offensive Tackle Evan Neal was taken only two picks after Thibodeaux and will be charged with protecting Daniel Jones until Tyrod Taylor takes over. Both will be immediate starters for NY, good foundational players on which to build in 2023. Another starter will be wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, the 43rd overall pick. The Giants' new head coach, Brian Daboll spent his previous life as offensive coordinator for four NFL teams and well, essentially a fifth NFL team in the Alabama Crimson Tide. He is talking some crazy stuff for 2022, like four and five wide receiver sets as well as having Robinson in the backfield with Barkley. Evidently everyone wants to have their own Deebo Samuel now. He is going to need Robinson to get up to speed very quickly considering the Giants' starting three wide receivers are injury prone. Kenny Golladay and Sterling Shepard are often ailing, in fact as this is being written, Shepard is on the PUP list with an achilles injury. The only wide receiver worth his salt on the Giants is the young Kadarius Toney out of Florida, and by “worth his salt” I mean only if he has a quarterback who can get him the ball. A quarterback can’t get him the ball if he doesn’t have a line to protect him and the Giants seem to have hung their hat on stop-gaps. The Giants have so many offensive holes to fill with so little money that it just doesn’t seem plausible that they can put together a winning season. The rest of the Giants' eleven 2022 draft picks will most likely be relegated to back-up roles. Those picks are guard, Joshua Ezeudu, CB Cor’Dale Flott, TE Daniel Bellinger (may see some action as the tight end spot is extremely thin for NY), S Dane Belton, LB Micah McFadden, DT D.J. Davidson, OL Marcus McKethan (tore his ACL and is out for the season) and LB Darrian Beavers.

Now that we have covered the lackluster additions to the NY football Giants, we ask the question, can Jacksonville beat them? Last year NY had a total of four wins, they were against the Saints, Raiders, Panthers and Eagles, and they didn’t really improve their team at all this offseason. The Jaguars on the other hand are not only a completely different team but also have a super bowl winning coaching staff. We here at JaguarsTalk have extensively covered the additions the Jaguars made this offseason. We have also spent a lot of time explaining how the defense will be winning the games for the Jags while the offense just needs to remain efficient and not turn the ball over. New York’s offense will not produce more wins this year than last and one of their wins will not be at Jacksonville in week seven. Whether Daniel Jones is still the starter or whether Tyrod Taylor has taken over, as we believe he will, Jacksonville’s defense will prevail. They must be careful, however, not to be too over-exuberant. Both of the NY QBs have good feet and can pile up more yardage than their running backs. 

Seeing as how NY will be rolling into the Bank with a 2022 record of 0-6 or 1-5 (the Giants might beat either the Bears or the Panthers, but not both) they won’t be riding on the same high as the 4-2, three game win streak, Jaguars. With that said, here is the JaguarsTalk week seven, take it to Vegas, prediction…Giants 10 - Jaguars 17. One of those close ones that shouldn’t have been so close. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.