Eli Manning says he's not rushing into retirement. (He may not have much of a choice in the matter though. He didn't look sharp in the OTA's according to most reports.) He wants to keep playing for as long as he can. I don't blame him for that, but given his recent performance and inability to get the ball down the field accurately, he may not have much of a choice. He had a high completion percentage for a lot of yardage last year, but most of it came on the dink and dunk style of passing. If you can't challenge a defense down the field, they'll start cheating up and take away those dinks and dunks. It's the threat of the long ball that keeps defenses honest. If you don't have that, you're in big trouble. The Giants' braintrust added more dink and dunk receivers this year and traded away their down the field threat (OBJ.) That short, middle of the field area is going to start getting very crowded with three receivers, four DB's and three or four linebackers all in there. Finding an open receiver in that maze of players will be a challenge.
And the Giants are apt to be playing from behind quite a bit. They have no pass rushers of note this year. They've invested heavily in defensive backs in the belief that covering receivers is better than rushing passers. In a perfect world you'd do both. In a less perfect world you generally prioritize getting to the QB. (At least since the 85 Bears.) Big receivers can box out DB's and make the catch no matter how good the coverage.
The Giants are breaking with convention in several ways this year. No deep ball threat. All slot type receivers. No pass rushers. They'll either be on the leading edge of what will be a trend, or they'll be drafting very, very high next year with a new head coach and GM. I'm leaning more towards the new head coach and GM side of that equation. Even having a Saquon Barkley doesn't help a lot if the box is full of defenders looking to take away the short passing game. If you've got a deep passing game a safety and corner are automatically out of the box on runing plays making it easier on the back. If all eleven defenders are at or near the line of scrimmage, there's no where for a back to go.
Both the Cardinals and Giants will be interesting to watch. Both are taking new approaches to the game. I'm not optimistic about either of their chances however.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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