“Exciting” and “fun” are not words that have been associated with the New York Giants’ offense in recent years. They are, though, words that offensive coordinator Matt Nagy used on Tuesday to describe what fans will see from the offense this season.
“I would just say wait and see. I’m not going to get into a whole lot of the scheme part of it, but I think it’s going to be exciting. I think it’s going to be fun,” Nagy said on Tuesday. “We need to be able to be complementary, but we’re very optimistic
on how this thing’s going to go. Because of how OTAs has transformed into training camp and training camp how it’s going right now, we feel really good.
“But now you’ve got to be able to do it when it matters most.”
When Nagy spoke to media two weeks ago, he said the Giants were only “halfway through” the installation of the offense.
“We’re now through all of them,” Nagy said. “And so, what’s happened now is they’re able to kind of see the foundation of this offense and where that starts. But now we also start getting into being able to put some little different factors into it and change some things up because they know the foundation.
“Now we can start saying, okay, we see now what you do well. And so, now we want to be able to kind of put it all together and make it make sense that ultimately they can play fast.”
One thing that has not been evident in the passing game is quarterback Jaxson Dart trying to push the ball down the field. Perhaps part of that has been that Malik Nabers, the team’s best wide receiver, is still ramping up following two surgeries to repair a torn ACL. Some of that may also simply be that the pieces of the passing attack have been a work in progress.
Dart also struggled with the deep ball as a rookie, completing just 16 of 50 passes 20+ yards down the field. That was 20th among 21 qualifying quarterbacks with at least 42 attempts at that distance.
On Tuesday, Dart connected with wide receiver Darnell Mooney on a deep ball that media in attendance found noteworthy enough to ask Nagy about.
“I like the fact that he gave him time to adjust,” Nagy said. “So, when that ball was in the air, it was so high that when Moon (was running, he actually had to adjust and turn back over his right shoulder. So, he put enough air on it for him to adjust.
“We talk a lot, man. When guys are covered, they’re uncovered. That’s a mentality. And he wasn’t wide open, but he threw him open.”
Nagy liked the trust that Dart displayed by making that throw.
“Just being able to have that trust factor, which as we go through this offense right now, for Jaxson, that’s the other part, too, I would tell you is his trust is growing week by week with what we’re doing,” Nagy said. “And when you see that as a coach and you understand the trust that he has, he gives feedback to us, and then we’re able to in turn work together to do what he does best. So, that’s a great example of being able to take a shot and take advantage of it with a completion.”
More takeaways
On the injury suffered by wide receiver Calvin Austin …
“I just know when you go through those moments right there, obviously you see what we all went through when we saw it. And you don’t know what it is. But I’ll just say this about Calvin Austin is, what an unbelievable kid, what a great person and a great talent. And so, I think naturally you always think the worst when something like that happens, but we don’t know. I don’t know. So, all I’m going to do is go in there and tell him I love him, and I appreciate everything about him and I hope he’s okay and he’s back at practice tomorrow.”
On Odell Beckham’s standing in the wide receiver competition …
“Odell got here towards the end of OTA’s and, I mean, really didn’t know anything. He’s just trying to get out here and physically show that he can make plays. And we all know who Odell was and what we want him to be. We get back here in training camp and every day he’s getting more and more reps and he’s starting to understand within our system. In the pass game, for instance, if we have certain concepts, he now knows why those concepts are paired together to make sense for certain routes in a concept. So, now he can play a little faster and let his physical skills really jump out to all of us and make plays.
“And so, I know he’s super frustrated about that drop he had in the game the other day. We all know nine out of ten times he’s going to catch that, but I like where he’s at. The biggest thing with him, though, is just being able to really stay focused and locked in on the details of the specifics, whether it’s a formation, a route depth, a conversion, a blocking assignment. To be a great wide receiver nowadays, you’ve got to be able to adjust post-snap and you’ve got to be able to know where to line up. And so that’s a process. He’s been very patient and I’m proud of where he’s at.”
On Tyrone Tracy’s preseason struggles …
“His resume speaks for himself. It’s tough when you have a block that you know you should go to and make the block, then the next week you have a fumble in the red zone. But one thing we’re not going to do is, at the moment he knows it’s not good. He understands that. That’s common sense. But what are you going to do about it? So, you’ve got to be able to bounce back. He got the ball the very next play. And so, all we’ve told him, ‘Listen, man, you’ve got to just step up, keep playing ball, we know who you are.’ Just show him our confidence we have in him and see what he can do.”
