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Offensive philosophy Curtis Riley Jersey , Dave Gettleman’s decisions, 2019 NFL Draft on minds of Giants fans Odell Beckham Jr. is questioning his teammates with the New York Giants. Well, fans of the team have questions, too. Which is what our Big Blue View mailbag is for. So, let’s open it up and see what questions spill out.Ed says: Well, sure. They have a fullback [Elijhaa Penny]. They have enough tight ends. But, you’re telling me you want them to take Sterling Shepard off the field on a regular basis and replace him with a tight end or fullback? That’s not a good use of your personnel. The Giants need to give the ball to Saquon Barkley as a running back more than 10 times per game, but lining up play after play with a fullback, two tight ends and only a single wide receiver isn’t going to happen. Nor should it.Christopher Scott asks: Four games into the season and the revamped offensive line is still not allowing for big plays to develop. I understand there may not be a proven Pro Bowl lineman sitting at home waiting for a phone call. Are the Giants bringing anyone in during the week to try out, to at least kick the tires on some FA? Ed says: Christopher, I haven’t heard of workouts the past couple of weeks. That said, the Giants have added two offensive tackles — Brian Mihalik and Jylan Ware — to their practice squad in recent weeks. I’m sure they are aware of who is available. If they thought, however, that someone on the street was better than the players they have they would have signed him already. There is a reason guys are available at midseason — the other teams have judged them not to be worthy of a roster spot.Seth Weissman asks: Based entirely what you’ve seen from the Giants so far this season and assuming they finish with one of the 5 worst records in the league, if a top QB is available, would you draft him or an OT with the first pick in April’s draft?Also, I love Barkley, but can we all admit that since the Giants had decided to hold onto Eli as starting QB, they should have traded down in the first round and nabbed a different RB or Bradley Chubb and another OL?Ed says: Seth, I’m not going to commit to anything when it comes to the draft. There are 12 games yet to play. The college season is still in full swing. The draft is roughly seven months away. I haven’t, to be honest, studied a single college prospect. And I won’t for several months yet.I have no clue what I would do. There isn’t enough information at this point to make a decision. I don’t know where the Giants will be drafting, who will be available, how the players on the current Giants roster will perform the next 12 games, what free agents they will sign or lose. There’s just no point in worrying about Nate Solder Jersey , or trying to figure that out, now.As for the trade down scenario, I don’t think we should “all admit” that it’s what the Giants should have done. Saquon Barkley is a wonderful player. Trading down and adding picks is the scenario I would have preferred since the Giants weren’t selecting a quarterback, but they got four really good players at the top of their draft — Barkley, Will Hernandez, Lorenzo Carter, B.J. Hill. That haul is hard to complain about.Gino Phillips asks: What is solution to [Curtis] Riley’s play at safety?Ed says: On the current roster, I’m not sure there is one. The Giants let Darian Thompson and Andrew Adams go, and the only work either has been able to find is on practice squads. Which tells you the rest of the league wasn’t enamored of their abilities. Michael Thomas is not a free safety. Maybe the Giants give undrafted rookie Sean Chandler an opportunity eventually, but right now that’s about all they can do.The real answer is that they are going to have to look for an upgrade in the offseason, whether that is via free agency or the draft.I do understand why the Giants gave Riley the safety job. He is usually in center field, and the Giants wanted a player with range and cornerback skills. Riley has those. What he doesn’t have is the ability to tackle or take proper angles in pursuit of ballcarriers. Per Pro Football Focus, Riley already has six missed tackles in four games. He is missing one of every four tackles he attempts. For the guy who is the last line of defense — or for any NFL player, really — that isn’t going to cut it.CTscan123 asks: We had exactly 2 good players on our offensive line last year. We let them go and spent the money to retain them on the highest paid “average“ tackle in the league, A guard with no history of success, and over the hill running back, and a $10 million middle linebacker Who can’t cover. Then we let our promising replacement center go because we couldn’t afford him. Looks to me like we lost three good players, gained one overpriced average one and not much else worthwhile. Seems to me that excluding the draft pick, which we could have made anyway, that there is less talent on the offensive line this year than last year. How is this focusing on the line? Shouldn’t we already be shouting for Gettleman’s head?Ed says: No, fans shouldn’t be screaming for Gettleman’s head. Has every move he has made worked out perfectly? No. That’s the case for every GM of every sports team. The reality of it is the Giants have not been a good team for most of the past six or seven years. That doesn’t get fixed overnight.You wanted Gettleman to spend close to $100 million on Justin Pugh and Weston Richburg — the best players on an offensive line that has been terrible for years? That’s basically advocating the status quo. I happen to like both players, but the brutal truth is neither one plays the position where the Giants absolutely had to have help — left tackle — and neither one is worth the money they got paid. Pugh got five years and $45.025 million. Richburg got five years and $47.5 million.Right now, Pugh is PFF’s 73rd-ranked guard and has given up 15 quarterback pressures. Only three guards have given up more. Gettleman would be getting destroyed if he had given Pugh that kind of money for that kind of bad play. For all the complaints about him, Patrick Omameh (three years, $15 million) has given up nine pressures. Will Hernandez Authentic Sterling Shepard Jersey , drafted to play Pugh’s left guard spot, is PFF’s third-ranked guard overall.I’m not sure I like what the Giants did at center, but when you think you can adequately fill a position for $40+ million less than you would have had to pay Richburg, I can’t argue with that philosophy. As for how is it focusing on the line, I don’t see any starters (other than Chad Wheeler) who were in the lineup last year. So, yeah, that’s different. They’ve done a lot. Is it perfect, or finished? No, but they have only had one offseason to try and fix something former GM Jerry Reese couldn’t get right for most of a decade.Ed says: Ummm ... I think that’s what they’ve been doing. Quick, underneath throws to try and get yards after catch. They’ve been bowing to the idea that teams are playing soft and forcing the underneath stuff. They need to create more chunk plays, and one way to do that is run the ball more, force the defense to put extra guys at the line of scrimmage and open up lanes down the field. Bubble screens and quick stuff is what we’ve been seeing.JDatchko asks: With hindsight, worse move, signing Jonathan Stewart of trading Brett Jones? Ed says: It seems like many fans want to fry Gettleman for these two moves. Truth is, I understand both of them.I get why the Giants signed Jonathan Stewart. He’s a former first-round pick who has had a lot of success in the league. Gettleman knows him well, knows what kind of person he is, knows he was a good locker room presence in Carolina and knows that he can be a good influence on Saquon Barkley. By all accounts, he has been that for Barkley.When you take over a 3-13 team that had a fractured locker room and a losing culture, finding the right kind of veteran locker room leaders is critical. It’s a big part of why Stewart was signed.Now, did Gettleman overpay Stewart and misjudge how much ability he had left on the field? Yes to both questions. The Stewart contract is a bad one, and before he went on IR he hadn’t shown anything on the field. Again, though, I do understand why Gettleman wanted Stewart to be part of the 2018 Giants.As for Jones, I have also said before that I understand why the Giants traded him. I was surprised by the decision to start Jon Halapio over Jones. Once it was made, though Youth Kareem Martin Jersey , trading Jones made sense. The Giants were desperate for cap space, Jones was one of their few tradeable assets, and we’re finding out that John Greco is just fine at center. I had less problem with trading the guy than I did with not giving him the starting job to begin with. [E-mail Ed at bigblueview@gmail.com or via the Big Blue View Contact Page | Follow Big Blue View on Twitter | ‘Like’ Big Blue View on Facebook | Follow Big Blue View on Instagram] When the New York Giants face the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football, there will be a lot on the line. Despite being 1-4 on the season, and currently possessing the top overall pick in the 2019 draft, the Giants also have the opportunity to catapult themselves in to the thick of the hunt for the division crown. No team is the NFC East has more than two victories.The Giants’ defense has done enough for the team to win each of their five games so far, and it is on the offense to take the next step. Can they do it against division rival Philadelphia on a short week?Stats at a glanceGiants’ offenseRushing yards: 75.6 per game (28th overall)Passing yards: 262.2 per game (17th overall)Total yards: 337.8 per game (25th overall)Points: 20.8 per game (23rd overall) *Note: Amazingly, the Giants have scored the most points in the NFC East.Eagles’ defenseRushing yards: 66.4 per game (2nd overall)Passing yards: 276.8 per game (22nd overall)Total yards: 343.2 per game (10th overall) Points: 20.8 per game (7th overall) Play in spite of the offensive lineThe Giants’ rebuilt offensive line has been bad this season, shockingly bad, and it has gotten worse over the last two weeks.Over the last two weeks, against the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers with Saquon Barkley carrying the ball, the Giants have run the ball 25 times. Four of those rushes went for more than 5 yards, with carries of 7, 20, 28, and 30 yards (85 total). The other 21 carries went for a grand total of 7 yards (.33 yards per carry). This despite the fact that Barkley has seen eight (or more) defenders in the box on less than a quarter of his carries. In 2017, Manning was sacked 31 times. So far, through the first five games, Manning has been sacked 16 times and is on pace for 51 sacks this season. Though his sack totals have gone down over the last two weeks, he remains under consistent pressure with Saints and Panthers’ rushers consistently coming closer than league-average to Manning. All of this means that, faced with a talented Eagles’ defensive front, if the Giants want to have any offensive success, they will need to find it in spite of their offensive line. Barkley’s big runs have largely come when he has used his incredible athleticism to escape would-be tacklers at (or behind) the line of scrimmage and gone off script. It isn’t sustainable, but if the Giants want any production on the ground, the trend says that they will have to hope for Barkley to keep his super hero cape on and get it done himself. Likewise Youth Ray-Ray Armstrong Jersey , though Eli Manning is about as graceful as a newborn giraffe, against the Panthers he managed to navigate the pocket, avoid rushers, and give his receivers time to work open down the field. It might not be sustainable, but the Giants, Manning and Barkley in particular, need to sustain it for one more week against a tough Eagles’ defensive front.Can the Giants’ find a balance?So far we have seen two bad performances from the Giants (against the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints), two good ones (against the Houston Texans and Carolina Panthers), and one that was promising at the time (against the Jacksonville Jaguars). Five games in we have data points about what works and what doesn’t with regards to the Giants’ offense.When the Giants’ offense stagnates, it is generally because Manning isn’t looking down the field. Against the Cowboys and Saints, Most of Manning’s passes were five yards or shorter, with many of them going at or behind the line of scrimmage. Against the Texans, most of Manning’s passes were between 5 and 7 yards, and against the Panthers his average completion traveled nearly 10 yards in the air. The common thread is that when Manning plays it safe, taking check downs rather than letting routes open up downfield, the offense stagnates. But when he looks downfield more, giving Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard, and Saquon Barkley the chance to make plays in space, the offense is much better. Of course, Manning’s two interceptions against the Panthers reveals the problem with the aggression with which he played against Carolina. Almost completely eschewing check-dows and throws to Barkley, the high-risk approach didn’t always pay off and cost the Giants points. They need to find a balance between the game plan the Giants used against Carolina, which caters to the strengths of the Giants’ skill position players and Manning’s tendencies as a gunslinger, and the more methodical, conservative game plan they used against Houston. The Eagles’ secondary is their defensive weakness B.J. Hill Jersey , the cornerback duo of Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills in particular. The duo has given up a combined 55 receptions for 565 yards and a touchdown apiece. However, attacking them will put a strain on the pass protection. It is a risk the Giants will have to accept and deal with, but there might be a safer option they could make use of.As Dan Pizzuta and I pointed out in the Big Blue reView podcast after the Panthers game, using Barkley as a receiving weapon — not just a check down option — could be the answer. Barkley is capable of running a full route tree out of the backfield, and would likely be matched up on a linebacker. Jordan Hicks is a good coverage linebacker, but Barkley is a mismatch for nearly any safety or linebacker in the NFL. The Giants should make use of that mismatch down the field and put him in position to use his prodigious athleticism without being constrained by the offensive line.Play with passionPerhaps the single biggest difference between the Giants’ offense in Week 5 and the four games that preceded it was the passion with which they played. Odell Beckham Jr. was widely criticized for calling his team out for not matching his passion and energy on offense before Sunday’s game. However, it was also clear from watching the games that the scheme, which hovered somewhere between patient and methodical and frightened of risk, just was not working. The team did what Beckham asked against Houston, particularly in the second half, after a futile quarter and a half to open the game. The result was Manning’s first 300+ yard passing performance, and the team’s first 30+ point performance since 2015. The Giants played a team that was widely considered to be vastly superior down to the wire. The offense finally showed a spark and an energy that it hadn’t shown in years. The Giants are, somehow, only a game and a half out of the lead in their division. They can still accomplish what they set out to do when they threw their support behind Eli Manning, but if they want to get it done, they will need to build on that spark. They be well served to be more judicious going forward than they were against Houston, but they can’t go back to the passive, risk averse offense which played to not lose that they ran against Jacksonville, Dallas, and New Orleans.The Eagles, and the rest of the NFC East, have left the door open. The Giants need to walk their own selves through it, and they’ve seen the way forward.