After the Giants’ lackluster offensive performance last season – which was undoubtedly influenced by instability at the quarterback position – a guiding principle emerged for Big Blue in the offseason: create more explosive plays.
“We’re trying to improve and create explosive plays and get the ball down the field,” said quarterback Daniel Jones said in June. “We take advantage of the opportunities we get … we have a lot of guys who can make big plays.”
Wide receiver Darius Slayton said in July that head coach Brian Daboll has “definitely stressed that we need to make more plays on the field. We need to create more explosiveness, not only on the field, but also in catch-and-run scenarios.”
Part of that creative burden will fall on the experienced Slayton and a young receiver corps led by a second-year man Jalin Hyatt and the sixth overall selection this year Malik Nabers have a big impact.
“Experience helps,” Daboll said on Thursday about Hyatt, “setting up, going to the right place, playing fast. He has made a good jump. We’re taking that with us into the season.”
“But I’m happy with all four. Slay has been very, very consistent since he’s been here. I have a lot of confidence in him. I know the quarterback does too. And then Nabers is a freshman who had a good training camp.”
Daboll will play a more active role in supporting those receivers as he appears ready to take over the playmaking duties from the offensive coordinator. Mike Kafka. The head coach has called plays for the first two preseason games and will do so again on Saturday in the final preseason game. On Thursday, he said they are “moving in that direction” so he can do the same in Week 1.
The plan for the passing game will be to “try to attack all areas of the field” in the hunt for big plays “to make it as difficult as possible (for the defense).”
“I think there were 323 plays of 40 yards or more in all games last year,” Daboll said. “So that’s less than one percent of the entire season, exactly 0.9 percent. So you have to be good at threatening the vertical part of the field. No question about it. But you also have to be able to sustain drives.”
“…We’ve been actively doing that throughout OTAs and camp by driving the ball down the field.”
And this is where Jones’ play in the middle will play a big role.
“You have to make the right decision when you play quarterback,” said the head coach. “If everyone is playing deep and there is a throw Wan’Dale (Robinson) where you can gain 15, 18 yards on a run after a catch, then so be it.
“But you definitely have to threaten the deep part of the field, medium, short, horizontal. That’s what you want to do on offense: try to create as many mismatches as possible.”
It should help the playmaker that they not only have similar speed, but also have different skills and characteristics.
“I like that they’re fast and agile. So they can run and create distance,” said Daboll. “Some are smaller, some are bigger. But I like these.”
