Hard Knocks‘ initial offseason project captured the third Joe Schoen–Brian Daboll Giants roster-building effort, with John Mara making some important cameos. After cameras documented the Giants’ free agency period, the Brian Burns trade and the pre-draft buildup, it is safe to say a bigger spotlight will be on the team’s 2024 season.
Mara, who advocated for keeping Saquon Barkley (though, without mandating Schoen make a strong effort to do so) and certainly wanted him to end up outside of Philadelphia, stopped short of requiring his third-year decision-makers steer the team back to the playoffs. But the owner does expect a significant improvement, even after the Barkley and Xavier McKinney defections, this season.
[RELATED: Offseason In Review: New York Giants]
“I expect us to take a big step forward,” Mara said, via the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy. “… I obviously want to show significant improvement over last year, but I’m not going to make any specific guarantees or demands or anything like that. They know what I want to see. I have a lot of confidence in this particular team. I think we’ve added some good pieces. Now it’s time to show everybody.”
The Giants finished 6-11 last year, but five of those wins came without Daniel Jones. The starter, who received $81MM guaranteed during an eventful 2023 offseason that involved a Barkley franchise tag, struggled amid a tough early-season schedule. Jones battled a neck injury before his November ACL tear. Fully healthy once again, Jones looks to be going into another “prove it” season. The Giants can escape the contract by taking on only modest dead money by releasing the longtime starter as a post-June 1 cut next year, though Mara remains onboard with the team’s embattled starter.
“I’m still happy we gave him that contract because I thought he played really well for us in 2022,” Mara said (via Dunleavy) of the four-year, $160MM extension authorized in March 2023. “Last year, he got hurt. And let’s be honest: When he was playing, we weren’t blocking anybody. Let’s give him a chance with a better offensive line and some weapons around him to see what he can do.”
Hard Knocks followed the Giants’ rumored plan to trade up for a Jones heir apparent. The Giants attempted to trade Nos. 6 and 47, along with their 2025 first-round pick, to the Patriots for the No. 3 overall draft slot. The Pats passed, rejecting a substantial Vikings offer as well, and chose Drake Maye — whom both NFC teams coveted — to be their hopeful franchise QB. With that off the table, Schoen pivoted to a wide receiver-based strategy in Round 1 by choosing Malik Nabers.
Not impeding Schoen in free agency, Mara was not thrilled about the Barkley conclusion. But the owner’s Jones support — which was a key part of the first Schoen-Daboll offseason back in 2022 — did not prompt him to stand in the way of an attempt to trade up for a passer in the draft. The team’s Plan B unfolding, with Nabers profiling as the highest-ceiling WR option the Giants have rostered during the Jones era, will apply increased pressure on the sixth-year passer.
“I was nervous about giving up too much to go get a quarterback,” Mara said, “but I was prepared to let them do that if that’s what they wanted to do. We made a decision to stay with Daniel and add a weapon for him, and I think that’s going to work out.”
The Athletic’s Dan Duggan notes the owner and his nephew — player personnel director Tim McDonnell — stood as the biggest skeptics of Schoen’s plan to let the two-time Pro Bowl running back walk in free agency (subscription required). Pro scouting director Chris Rossetti also made a minor pitch to apply a second franchise tag, but the Giants passed on the $12MM payment. The Eagles gave Barkley a three-year, $37.5MM payday with $26MM fully guaranteed; the latter figure leads all active RBs.
Mara also confirmed (via Duggan) he sought this offseason Hard Knocks version to avoid cameras following his team at a near-future training camp; after the access the Giants provided, it will be unlikely other teams make a point of doing that. The longtime owner seen his club produce one winning season over the past seven — a surprise 9-7-1 slate that ended in the 2022 divisional round — and no Giants head coach has reached Year 4 since Tom Coughlin. Jones disappointing and Barkley thriving as an Eagle will probably affect Mara’s support for his current decision-makers.
Although the Giants’ roster has some well-paid Dave Gettleman-era draftees as cornerstones, Year 3 features more Schoen imports. It will obviously be a critical year for the regime. The lack of an improvement on last season runs the risk of Schoen and Daboll’s jobs being on the line without the duo having acquired their own quarterback.
Prepare for disappointment
Hard to take a worse step back, although I think the division is tough. l believe in Washington’s QB, which means the Giants have the worst QB in the division. They never play well against Philly or Dallas. If Mara gave Gettleman 4 years, he has to allow this regime to draft their own QB and let them see it through, regardless of how many games they win
NY = loser
Not sure who you root for, but I’ll take 4 Super Bowl wins in 5 appearances.
If the offensive line is horrendous again, then the Giants have no shot at improvement. Hopefully with a new OL coach things will get better, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The team’s ceiling is probably something like 9 wins. A lot of ifs with this team. If Brian Burns gels in a new system. If the secondary holds up. If the OL improves. If Nabors breaks out. If Daniel Jones can game-manage his passing and get back to his running game. I’m not optimistic but I’ll be watching every game anyway.
Jones certainly looks like he’s in great shape. Whether that will translate to a better product is yet to be seen, because post-tear running is just as much a mental game as it is physical. I think that Jones could improve as a passer, but it’s rare that a significant change this late in a player’s career is transformative the way that it needs to be to guarantee Jones’ success.
But really, at the end of the day, this is all semantics. As you said, the mist crucial area needing improvement is the offensive line, and it has been for around ten years. Jones’ future is likely already dimmed out by coaching changes, lack of weapons, and his own struggles, but the biggest source of damage has been that line. I sort of wonder if Jones would even know how to play with a good line after being subjected to so many bad ones over the years, to be honest. But no matter how a QB plays, he’ll always do it better when he has time. Jones has born the blame for a problem that’s not entirely his doing.
Having a receiver who gets open quickly should make offensive line struggles less glaring too, but yeah, if they’ve got Evan Neal playing turnstile at right tackle again, that’s a problem. I didn’t like the Runyan signing much, but I loved the Eluemunor move, in part because Neal sure looks like he requires an insurance plan. I’m shocked by how bad he’s been.
Same. As I said before, when the pick was made, I thought that it was brilliant. Suffice to say, it has been decidedly…not brilliant.
“I’m shocked by how bad he’s been.”
I think a lot of us have been. Neal was supposed to be more or less NFL-ready right out of the box but that hasn’t happened. Looking back on draft grades of the time, practically everyone loved the pick (PFF – “one of the best pound-for-pound athletes in this class”; CBS – “He is the best offensive lineman in this draft. In five years, he will be among the best in football.”; SI – “Neal will be the steal of the draft. The Alabama tackle has the most natural kick back for an offensive lineman I’ve ever seen. His ability, at that size, to drop into standard protection, rebalance and find a center of power is something to behold.”).
I’m hoping this is/was just a situation where bad coaching has stunted his growth. Not a lot of good press about Bobby Johnson’s tenure as OL coach.
So what is the point in Mara blowing a lot of hot air if he isn’t going to make any demands? Schoen hasn’t proven he’s any better than Gettleman was so the Giants won’t be taking any “big step forward” until they acquire a good GM.
Did anyone else who watched Hard Knocks ever get the impression that the Giants “coveted” Drake Maye? I sure didn’t see that. I also kinda thought the overall tone of their conversations about FAs and draft picks was very matter of fact. Oddly like.. where do you wanna go for lunch?
Not sure how much to take out of these series. They know they’re being recorded and won’t say anything detrimental to their jobs. It’s a catch 22. How would you act at work knowing there’s cameras recording everything you say? I’d bet they staged some of it. Now Mike MacDaniel of the Dolphins didn’t hold back much.
Jones played 5 full games and only won one game against the worst team in the league. And they only scored 41 points combined in the other 4 games. They should be better, but I’m not sure how much better.
agreed Joe it seems as though ad soon as Tyrod started the offense looked better all around I unfortunately have no faith in Jones but I’m stuck for another year or he proves a lot of fans wrong
I read this as Mara setting up the current pair for being canned next off-season if things don’t make a positive move forward. That doesn’t necessarily mean a significant increase in overall wins, but maybe it could be just a better perception that things are heading in the right direction. I would say right now, there aren’t any good vibes around the team, too many question marks, and just the negative, uncertain feeling of where are they going? If that changes, that might be enough to save Schoen-Daboll.
We are always annoyed with the meddling idiot owners in the NFL but an owner like Mara, who is content to stay in the background and allow his team to consistently wallow in mediocrity, can be just as frustrating to fans. The Giants seem adrift without any real direction at all. If Mara is expecting Schoen-Daboll to magically pull a rabbit out of the hat, he’s going to be disappointed.
People only hate on owner meddling because they are jealous. It’s obvious, juvenile, and sad. “This billionaire doesn’t know anything” has to be the most cringeworthy statement made in sports.
Depends on the owner I think. Mara has been around football a long time and knows to let his people run the team, and stay out of the spotlight. The INDY and LV owners, not so much. They only have a team because of daddy.
Amy Adams is only running the Titans because of daddy too.
Daniel Jones is mediocre QB, always has been always will be. These guys are like the Bears. Superstar receivers, superstar running back, but the QB has generally been the week link. In my opinion even Eli Manning wasn’t a great QB, he had a great team around him.
I’m sorry, name the bears susperstar running back and wide receiver. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.