More often than not throughout the early stages of New York Giants training camp, the defense has gotten the better of the offense during team periods.
That is cause for alarm among some on the fan base . There are many who did not like the hiring of Matt Nagy as offensive coordinator, and aren’t sure how the Giants’ offense is going to come together with multiple former head coaches or play callers on the staff.
Nagy offered a hint regarding why the offense has not been better during first first media
availability of training camp on Tuesday. As Nagy explains it, the offense we are seeing is far from complete, and far from polished.
“We’re halfway through camp right now. We have still two and a half weeks. We’re halfway through our run install and halfway through our pass install, if it gives you any perspective,” Nagy said. “We still have a lot left, and we’re trying to just figure out, “Okay, what do we want to do as we go through it?” And we think we have a good idea.“
The Giants are still in the process of figuring out what they like and don’t like, and what they do and do not execute well.
“When I say that, we have an idea of what we want to do,” Nagy said. “I’m talking play-wise – big picture we know – play-wise, you start to build a little bit of a library of what our guys do well. We’re not going to give them stuff that we just want to do because we want to do it. If we do something, it’s because they like it and they do a good job at it in any phase of the game.
“So, putting all that together and cutting it loose, it’s [the season] going to be here quickly. So, getting as much stuff – the one thing Coach Harbs does is get a ton of reps of plays. So, whether it’s walkthrough, group install or competitive, we have a lot of stuff on tape right now that we’re able to pull and look at and decide what do we want to do.”
The Giants are culling together an offense that leans on ideas from Harbaugh, Nagy, passing game coordinator Brian Callahan, senior offensive assistant Greg Roman, and other former head coaches and play callers on the offensive staff.
“They’re still learning this offense. They’re learning it,” Nagy said. “There’s things that they’re familiar with, and there’s things that they’re not. There’s things that our staff is familiar with and things that they’re not, that I’m not.
“We’re growing together in this process, and that’s the beauty of all of this. So, I just have a lot of trust in our offensive staff. I have a ton of trust in Coach Harbs, and I know he has a plan. I know internally what he wants, and now it’s growth every day.”
‘The number one question’
That would be what works for second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart, and what does not.
“It’s the number one question we talked about when we got here with Coach Harbs and how we saw this thing,” Nagy said. “You go through it, every team, every new coordinator, every new head coach, every new quarterback. You’ve got to decide what’s best for that player and for our offense. But at the same point in time, we want to also look at schematically where do we see this thing going, and then trying to fit everything together.”
Nagy said the Giants are going through the process of figuring out what pieces of their developing playbook Dart likes, and which ones need to be cast aside.
“If there’s one or two plays where he might not be seeing it well, let’s figure out why you’re not. And if you’re not, let’s just get rid of the play. Let’s go to a different play. We’ve got enough plays,” Nagy said. “And so, we’re digging through that right now. We’re filtering through that to figure out, “What does he like? What’s he feel comfortable with?”
“And so, now when we find those plays and we figure out what that is, now you’ve got to go execute and make them happen on the field, and I think that’s the biggest, probably, obstacle that we’re going through right now, which is fun as a coaching staff.”
We do know that the offense will include a heavy dose of the run game, and that Dart will be asked to play under center more often.
“I think most people will tell you – I played quarterback my entire life, and having a run game is the friendliest thing in the world,” Nagy said. “You want to be able to run the football. Everybody says it, but you’ve got to be able to do it. So, being under center is going to protect you with some of the play actions and different things you do. Jaxson’s had no issue with that. I mean, we’re doing a bunch of different things with it.”
‘Buckets and concepts’
Why are the Giants only halfway through the install of their playbook with just a bit more than a month to go before the regular season starts?
“We spent Phase Two [of the offseason] just kind of trying to teach this thing ground up in buckets and phases, and not necessarily plays. So, we spent several weeks of just teaching the concepts and teaching, whether it’s run or pass, circles,” Nagy said. “We called it musical chairs, not positions. So, everybody had to know the concept. So, we weren’t running plays.”
Now, of course, they are. And they are doing it against what Nagy termed a “crazy” defense. Nagy believes Dart is doing a good job handling it all.
“Not only are we doing what we do, but now we get to see a crazy defense with Dennard [Wilson] and what he does,” Nagy said “So, you put it all together, and I think that every quarterback’s a little bit different, but my biggest thing with him was being able to get through these practices and get in – it sounds simple, but be able to get in the huddle, call the play, get up to the line of scrimmage, see the defense, and play fast.
“He’s calling every play. He’s seeing it when he says it. He’s not just listening and memorizing it. When you can get to that point and you start seeing guys talk like this in the huddle, they’re speaking to the person, he’s there. So, he’s aced that part. Now we’ve got to get it to the part of seeing the defense and taking it to the next level, because the kid is super talented.”
